Americans have yet another compelling reason to reconsider their involvement in Gaza, where millions of taxpayer dollars support its inhabitants. Fox News recently reported that Hamas has placed bounties on the staff of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), targeting both U.S. and local workers. This alarming development follows the Trump administration’s decision to approve an additional $30 million in aid to Gaza.
While Christian communities face persecution in regions like Nigeria and Syria, they receive little to no international assistance. Meanwhile, those impacted by hurricanes in the United States have struggled to receive federal aid, highlighting a disparity in the allocation of resources. The global stage is witnessing a less-than-stellar performance from America, as important domestic and international needs remain unmet.
The GHF has confirmed to Fox News that credible reports indicate Hamas is actively targeting their organization. Bounties have been placed on American security personnel and Palestinian aid workers, offering financial rewards for harm inflicted. Such actions underscore the volatile environment humanitarian workers face in Gaza.
In a strategic move, Hamas has stationed “armed operatives” near humanitarian zones, aiming to disrupt the only reliable aid delivery system in the area. This month, a deadly attack by Hamas resulted in the deaths of 12 GHF workers, with others reportedly tortured. These victims were local workers, demonstrating the indiscriminate nature of the violence.
Despite years of aid from the U.S. and Israel, the majority of Gazans continue to support jihadist ideologies. The persistent animosity toward Westerners, Christians, and Jews remains unchanged. The deeply rooted belief in perpetual jihad among devout Muslims presents an ongoing challenge for international relations.
President Donald Trump was reminded of this harsh reality when Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, showed no gratitude after being spared from an Israeli assassination plot. Trump’s surprise at Khamenei’s continued hostility highlights the complexity of dealing with such adversaries. The unyielding stance of certain leaders poses significant barriers to peace.
Efforts to negotiate or incentivize a departure from violence have consistently proven ineffective. The foundational teachings of Islam, with their historical implications, persist as barriers to change. Recent events, such as those in Kuala Lumpur, illustrate the cycle of violence that follows Palestinian movements globally.
Hamas’s actions against aid workers are likely to continue, fueled by local support for jihad against Israel. The situation in Gaza appears dire, with few viable solutions on the horizon. Some argue that the only resolution lies in Israel reclaiming control over Gaza and eliminating the threat posed by Hamas.
The complexities of international aid and foreign policy are underscored by these ongoing challenges. The need for a strategic reevaluation of resource allocation and diplomatic efforts is evident. America’s role on the world stage is under scrutiny, with a pressing need for effective solutions.
While the plight of those in conflict zones continues, so does the debate over American involvement. The balance between domestic responsibilities and international aid is a contentious issue. As the situation in Gaza evolves, global attention remains fixed on the outcomes of these intricate dynamics.
The resilience of humanitarian organizations like GHF is tested daily in hostile environments. Their commitment to aiding those in need, despite significant risks, is commendable. However, the sustainability of such efforts is questionable in the face of persistent threats.
The geopolitical landscape is fraught with challenges that demand careful navigation. America’s decisions in foreign policy have far-reaching implications, affecting both allies and adversaries. The pursuit of lasting peace requires a nuanced approach, informed by historical context and current realities.
The international community watches closely as tensions in Gaza persist. The interplay between aid, diplomacy, and military strategy is complex and multifaceted. As stakeholders assess the situation, the search for viable paths forward continues.
In the midst of global challenges, the role of leadership is critical. Policymakers must weigh the consequences of their decisions with regard to both domestic and international impact. The effectiveness of such leadership is measured by its ability to foster stability and progress.
The narrative surrounding Gaza and similar conflicts is shaped by diverse perspectives. Each viewpoint contributes to the broader discourse on international relations and humanitarian aid. Understanding these perspectives is key to addressing the root causes of unrest.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Tuesday told President Donald Trump that his country would take in approximately 2,000 sick children from the war-torn Gaza Strip as Trump pushed his plan to take over the territory while permanently relocating Palestinians.
Speaking at the White House, Abdullah added that Egypt would present a proposal on how countries in the region could “work” with Trump on the plan, despite Arab nations and the Palestinians having rejected it outright.
“I think one of the things that we can do right away is take 2,000 children, cancer children who are in a very ill state, that is possible,” Abdullah said as Trump welcomed him and Crown Prince Hussein in the Oval Office.
Trump called it a “beautiful gesture” and said he didn’t know about it before the Jordanian monarch’s arrival at the White House.
Trump meanwhile backed down on a suggestion that he could withhold aid for Jordan and Egypt if they refused to take in more than two million Palestinians from Gaza.
“I think we’ll do something,” he said. “I don’t have to threaten that, I do believe we’re above that.”
Trump announced last week a proposal for the U.S. to “take over” Gaza, envisioning rebuilding the devastated territory into the “Riviera of the Middle East” – but only after resettling Palestinians elsewhere, with no plan for them to return.
Jordan’s Abdullah was repeatedly pressed by reporters on whether he supported the plan, but said only that Egypt was producing a response and that Arab nations would then discuss it at talks in Riyadh.
“The president is looking at Egypt coming to present that plan … (then) we will be in Saudi Arabia to discuss how we should work with the president and with the United States,” Abdullah said.
“The point is, how do we make this work in a way that is good for everybody.”
The meeting came as the Gaza ceasefire appears increasingly fragile, after Trump warned on Monday that “all hell” would break out if Hamas fails to release all hostages by Saturday.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said Israel would resume “intense fighting” in Gaza if Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists did not meet the deadline. Trump said he doubted that Hamas would abide by the ultimatum.
“I don’t think they’re going to make the deadline personally. I think they want to play a tough guy, but we’ll see how tough they are,” Trump said.
But he played down the risk of a longer threat to efforts to create a lasting peace between Israel and Hamas.
“It’s not going to take a long time when you know bullies,” he added, referring to Hamas.
The Jordanian king and crown prince earlier met Trump’s National Security Advisor Mike Waltz.
An Ultra-orthodox Jewish man walks past a graffiti that displays portraits of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, in Jerusalem, on Monday, Jan. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Hamas has accepted a draft agreement for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of dozens of hostages, two officials involved in the talks said Tuesday. Mediators for the United States and Qatar said Israel and the Palestinian militant group were at the closest point yet to sealing a deal to bring them a step closer to ending 15 months of war.
The Associated Press obtained a copy of the proposed agreement, and an Egyptian official and a Hamas official confirmed its authenticity. An Israeli official said progress has been made, but the details are being finalized. All three officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the talks.
“I believe we will get a ceasefire,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a speech Tuesday, asserting it was up to Hamas. “It’s right on the brink. It’s closer than it’s ever been before,” and word could come within hours, or days.
The United States, Egypt and Qatar have spent the past year trying to mediate an end to the war and secure the release of dozens of hostages captured in Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered it. Nearly 100 people are still captive inside Gaza, and the military believes at least a third are dead.
Any deal is expected to pause the fighting and bring hopes for winding down the most deadly and destructive war Israel and Hamas have ever fought, a conflict that has destabilized the Middle East and sparked worldwide protests. It would bring relief to the hard-hit Gaza Strip, where Israel’s offensive has reduced large areas to rubble and displaced around 90% of the population of 2.3 million, many at risk of famine.
If a deal is reached, it would not go into effect immediately. The plan would need approval from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Security Cabinet and then his full Cabinet. Both are dominated by Netanyahu allies and are likely to approve any proposal he presents.
Officials have expressed optimism before, only for negotiations to stall while the warring sides blamed each other. But they now suggest they can conclude an agreement ahead of the Jan. 20 inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, whose Mideast envoy has joined the negotiations.
Hamas said in a statement that negotiations had reached their “final stage.”
In the Oct. 7 attack, Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted another 250. Around half those hostages were freed during a brief ceasefire in November 2023. Of those remaining, families say, two are children, 13 are women and 83 are men.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 46,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were combatants.
Israeli strikes across Gaza overnight and into Tuesday killed at least 18 Palestinians, including two women and four children, according to local health officials, who said one woman was pregnant and the baby died as well.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Israel says it only targets militants and accuses them of hiding among civilians.
The three-phase agreement — based on a framework laid out by U.S. President Joe Biden and endorsed by the U.N. Security Council — would begin with the release of 33 hostages over a six-week period, including women, children, older adults and wounded civilians in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian women and children imprisoned by Israel.
Among the 33 would be five female Israeli soldiers, each to be released in exchange for 50 Palestinian prisoners, including 30 militants who are serving life sentences. The Israeli official said Israel assumes most of the 33 are alive.
During this 42-day phase, Israeli forces would withdraw from population centers, Palestinians could start returning to what remains of their homes in northern Gaza and there would be a surge of humanitarian aid, with some 600 trucks entering each day.
Details of the second phase still must be negotiated during the first. Those details remain difficult to resolve — and the deal does not include written guarantees that the ceasefire will continue until a deal is reached. That means Israel could resume its military campaign after the first phase ends.
The Israeli official said “detailed negotiations” on the second phase will begin during the first. He said Israel will retain some “assets” throughout negotiations, referring to a military presence, and would not leave the Gaza Strip until all hostages are home.
The three mediators have given Hamas verbal guarantees that negotiations will continue as planned and that they will press for a deal to implement the second and third phases before the end of the first, the Egyptian official said.
The deal would allow Israel throughout the first phase to remain in control of the Philadelphi corridor, the band of territory along Gaza’s border with Egypt, which Hamas had initially demanded Israel withdraw from. Israel would withdraw from the Netzarim corridor, a belt across central Gaza where it had sought a mechanism for searching Palestinians for arms when they return to the territory’s north.
In the second phase, Hamas would release the remaining living captives, mainly male soldiers, in exchange for more prisoners and the “complete withdrawal” of Israeli forces from Gaza, according to the draft agreement.
Hamas has said it will not free the remaining hostages without an end to the war and a complete Israeli withdrawal, while Netanyahu has vowed in the past to resume fighting until Hamas’ military and governing capabilities are eliminated.
Unless an alternative government for Gaza is worked out in those talks, it could leave Hamas in charge of the territory.
In a third phase, the bodies of remaining hostages would be returned in exchange for a three- to five-year reconstruction plan for Gaza under international supervision.
Blinken on Tuesday was making a last-minute case for a proposal for Gaza’s postwar reconstruction and governance that outlines how it could be run without Hamas in charge.
Israel and Hamas have come under renewed pressure to halt the war before Trump’s inauguration. Trump said late Monday a ceasefire was “very close.”
Thousands of Israelis rallied in Tel Aviv on Tuesday night in support of a deal they have long encouraged. “This is not about politics or strategy. It’s about humanity and the shared belief that no one should be left behind in darkness,” said a hostage released earlier from Gaza, Moran Stella Yanai.
But in Jerusalem, hundreds of hardliners marched against a deal, some chanting, “You don’t make a deal with the devil,” a reference to Hamas.
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, families of Palestinian prisoners gathered as well. “I tell the mothers of the prisoners to put their trust in the almighty and that relief is near, God willing,” said the mother of one prisoner, Intisar Bayoud.
And inside Gaza, an exhausted Oday al-Halimy expressed hope from a tent camp for the displaced. “Certainly, Hamas will comply with the ceasefire, and Israel is not interested in opposing Trump or angering him,” he said.
A child born in Gaza on the first day of the war, Massa Zaqout, sat in pink pajamas in another tent camp, playing with toys. “We’re eagerly waiting for a truce to happen so we can live in safety and stability,” her mother, Rola Saqer, said.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
A.F. Branco Cartoon – Democrats and their media, CNN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, etc., keep trying to frame Trump as antisemitic when he’s been behind Israel and their effort to defend themselves. Most of the hate against Israel and the Jews has been coming from the left and the Democrats.
By Ben Kew – The Gateway Pundit – Sept 27, 2024
Kamala Harris’s husband Doug Emhoff has suggested that Donald Trump is an anti-semite and that is deliberately putting a target on the back of Jewish Americans. In an interview with MSNBC’s Jen Psaki, Emhoff said that although Donald Trump has said he will fight antisemitism if elected in November, he is in fact an antisemite himself and will do the exact opposite. Here is a transcript of the exchange: (READ MORE)
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
Students participate in a pro-Palestine protest at Columbia University in New York City, Nov. 15, 2023. (Spencer Platt via Getty Images)
One year after the deadliest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust, 3.5 million American Jews say they have experienced antisemitism, according to a recent study.
“One out of every five American Jewish children have experienced antisemitism since Oct. 7,” EJ Kimball, director of Christian engagement at Combat Antisemitism Movement, said during an event at The Heritage Foundation on Monday to mark the anniversary of Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel.
Kimball, a father of two, said both his children have experienced antisemitism at school in the past year. According to the survey, which was conducted by Dr. Ira Sheskin of the University of Miami and commissioned by Combat Antisemitism Movement, 61% of American Jews report feeling less safe since the terrorist attack a year ago.
Hamas terrorists killed about 1,200 people, mostly Israelis, on Oct. 7, and another 250 were taken hostage. Today, 93 Israelis are still being held hostage in Gaza, including four Americans with dual citizenship.
Kimball and several other experts in the field of combating antisemitism addressed the circumstances that led to Oct. 7 and the swift rise in anti-Jewish sentiment on college campuses during Monday’s event.
How Hamas Was Able to Carry Out Oct. 7
While Hamas carried out the deadly terrorist attack, Iran sponsored it, according to Fred Fleitz, vice chair of Center for American Security at the America First Policy Institute.
“Iran is the head of the snake,” Fleitz said during a panel discussion. “Iran is funding Hamas and Hezbollah and the Houthi rebels and Shiite militias in Syria and Iraq.”
Iran had the money to fund the attack at least in part because the U.S. government gave Iran access to billions of dollars as part of a prisoner exchange and the Biden administration “ignored all the sanctions that were introduced in the previous administration, allowing [Iran to sell] oil in the market and other business activities, allowing Iran to earn another $50 to $100 billion,” according to Mort Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America.
“The reserves went from $4 billion to $100 billion, enabling them to fund and arm Hamas and Hezbollah,” added Klein.
But Iran’s financial favor was not the only circumstance that led to Oct. 7. In 2005, all Israeli settlements in the Gaza strip were dismantled and “that was a terrible mistake,” according to Klein. In 2007, Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip. Hamas was also able to carry out the attack a year ago because of “Biden pressuring Israel to give work permits to Gaza civilians,” Klein said.
“These innocent Gaza civilians gave Hamas the routes, maps where the kindergartens were, where the schools are, the residents in each home, so they knew exactly what they were doing,” he said.
Israel should have also created a “buffer zone” between Israel and Gaza, Klein argued, adding that Israel may have missed an opportunity to destroy Hamas in 2021 after Hamas fired missiles at Israel. The Jewish state did respond, but the U.S. encouraged Israel to limit its response, which it did.
America has also given funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, which, according to Klein, “teaches hate and violence to Arabs.”
The United States is “in part responsible for Hamas remaining strong and remaining really in existence,” Klein said.
Why Did Pro-Palestine Protests Break Out So Quickly After Oct. 7?
The bodies of dead Israelis were hardly cold following the Oct. 7 attack when pro-Palestine protests broke out on college campuses in the U.S.
“One day after that attack, these individuals started coming out and protesting Israel’s right to defend itself right here in the heart of America,” Jonathan Schanzer, senior vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said during Monday’s event.
The individuals Schanzer is referring to are not so much the students protesting at Columbia University and other schools, but a group known as American Muslims for Palestine.
American Muslims for Palestine is “the group that incubated, funded, and directed Students for Justice in Palestine,” Schanzer said. Students for Justice in Palestine has organized many of the pro-Palestine campus protests over the past year.
“And, of course, we see people showing up at each one of these things—adults that have no business being on campus—and you’ve got to start to ask yourself, why?” Schanzer said.
Kimball says there has been a “colossal failure from leadership” on college campuses to call out antisemitism. The Combat Antisemitism Movement director contends that there should be consequences for students who participate in these “pro-genocidal protests” because “most of them have no idea what they’re even doing. They’re being used [and] manipulated.”
The Middle East moved closer to a long-feared regional war Wednesday, a day after Iran fired a barrage of missiles at Israel and Israel said it began limited ground incursions into Lebanon targeting the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia. Israel said it intercepted many of the missiles, and officials in Washington said U.S. destroyers assisted in Israel’s defense. Iran said most of its missiles hit their targets. There have been no reports of casualties.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed late Tuesday to retaliate against Iran, which he said, “made a big mistake tonight and it will pay for it.” An Iranian commander threatened wider strikes on infrastructure if Israel retaliates. U.S. President Biden said Wednesday that he would not support an Israeli attack targeting Iran’s nuclear program.
The United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting for Wednesday to address the spiraling conflict.
Israel said Wednesday that eight of its soldiers have been killed in combat in southern Lebanon.
Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire across the Lebanon border almost daily since the day after Hamas’ cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 Israelis and took 250 others hostage. Israel declared war on the militant group in the Gaza Strip in response. More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory, and just over half the dead have been women and children, according to local health officials.
Direct hit
At least one aircraft hangar at a key Israeli military air base appears to have taken a direct hit during a massive barrage of Iranian missiles, according to a satellite image analyzed by The Associated Press. Images of the Nevatim air base in southern Israel on Wednesday show a large hole blown in the roof of a row of buildings near the main runway. Large pieces of debris can be seen spread around the building.
Israel’s military did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the satellite images.
Nevatim is home to the Israeli Air Force’s most advanced aircraft, including U.S.-produced F-35 Lightening II stealth fighter jets. It is not clear from the satellite imagery whether any aircraft were in the hanger when it was struck. Nevatim also sustained light damage during an Iranian missile and drone attack in April.
Lebanon weighs in
Lebanon’s U.N. ambassador says his government rejects the war between Israel and Hezbollah militants in the country. Hadi Hachem told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council Wednesday that the government wants the enforcement of a U.N. Security Council resolution that was supposed to end the last Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006. It called for all armed groups, including Hezbollah, to be disarmed and the deployment of Lebanese forces to the southern border with Israel. None of this has happened.
The Lebanese ambassador said fully implementing the resolution is the only solution to the ongoing war and Israel’s “barbaric aggression.” He said Lebanon is opening enlistment for 1,500 new soldiers to strengthen the national army’s presence in the south.
“Lebanon today is stuck between the Israeli destruction machine and the ambitions of others in the region,” Hachem said, alluding to Iran’s support for Hezbollah.
Americans flee
The State Department says about 100 American citizens and family members have left Lebanon on a flight contracted with a commercial airline. Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Wednesday that the flight to Istanbul was not a charter flight but also was not on the Lebanese national carrier Middle East Airlines, which is the only commercial airline flying scheduled flights in and out of Beirut. Since Sept. 28, MEA has made about 800 seats on its flights out of Beirut available for American citizens, but Miller could not say how many had taken those MEA flights.
He said some 6,000 American citizens have now asked for information from the U.S. Embassy in Beirut on how they might be able to leave the country, although only a small fraction of those have asked for actual assistance.
Escape to Syria
Thousands of Syrians and Lebanese continue to pour into Syria to escape Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon. On Wednesday, an Associated Press team saw hundreds crowding the Jousieh border crossing, one of several points of entry into Syria. The crossing is around 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Syria’s central city of Homs, where many said they were headed. Most of those waiting to enter Syria were from eastern Lebanon’s city of Baalbek and surrounding areas, which have been hard hit by Israeli airstrikes in recent days. The militant group Hezbollah has a strong presence in that region, but many of those killed and wounded have been civilians. Some came from as far as the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Ola Hallaq, her husband and two kids were among those waiting to be processed. Originally from Homs, she fled Syria at the start of the civil war in 2011 and settled in Baalbek. Now, as Israel pounds eastern Lebanon, the family is returning home despite the uncertainty and lack of income.
“I’m returning to my country because of the war … there was so much destruction all around,” she said.
Dabbah Mashaal, an official at the crossing, said 10,000 displaced Syrians and 7,700 Lebanese have crossed the border in recent days.
UN Ire
The United Nations says Israel’s ban on Secretary-General Antonio Guterres entering the country is a “political statement.” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters Wednesday that Foreign Minister Israel Katz saying Guterres is “persona non grata” is “one more attack on the United Nations staff that we’ve seen from the government of Israel.”
Katz accuses Guterres of being biased against Israel, and says he never condemned Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on southern Israel. Israel also claims staff from the U.N. aid agency helping Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, are Hamas members who participated in the Oct. 7 attacks.
Dujarric countered that Guterres has repeatedly condemned the Hamas attacks and sexual violence, and stressed that the U.N. still engages with Israel “at the operational level and other levels.”
JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Md. — President Joe Biden says he will not support an Israeli attack on sites related to Tehran’s nuclear program.
“The answer is no,” Biden said Wednesday, when asked if he would support such retaliation after Iran fired about 180 missiles at Israel on Tuesday. Biden’s comments came after he and fellow Group of Seven leaders spoke by phone on Wednesday to discuss coordinating new sanctions against Iran. The White House said in a statement that the G7 leaders “unequivocally condemned Iran’s attack against Israel” and Biden reiterated the United States’ “full solidarity and support to Israel and its people.”
All the while, the administration has signaled that it’s urging that Israel display restraint in how it responds to Tuesday’s missile attack, which Biden said was “ineffective and defeated.”
Hamas claims responsibility
Hamas’ military wing has claimed responsibility for a mass shooting in Tel Aviv that left seven people dead and wounded 16 more. It said the two attackers, Mohammed Mesek and Ahmed Himouni, were its militants who hailed from the southern West Bank city of Hebron. Israeli police said the two opened fire Tuesday evening in the Jaffa neighborhood of Tel Aviv, including shooting directly into a light rail carriage crowded with passengers that was stopped at a station. Police said the pair were shot and killed by security guards and armed pedestrians.
The attack came moments before Iran launched a massive barrage of rockets towards Israel, sending people into bomb shelters across the country.
It remains unclear how the two men entered Israel from the West Bank. Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, is active in various cities and refugee camps in the West Bank.
On Wednesday, locals left flowers and candles at the train stop, where bullet holes peppered the signs and benches.
Maya Brandwine said she was at a coffee shop on the street when the shooting broke out. During the subsequent Iranian missile attack, she took cover in a bomb shelter as police swept for suspects.
“It’s a nightmare, and we’re starting to get used to it,” she said, blaming the policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir for the violence.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
A woman holds a poster of Israeli hostage Omer Neutra during a memorial vigil for the Israeli people killed by Hamas during the October 7 attacks, in New York City on November 1, 2023. | Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images
Following the IDF’s announcement that the bodies of six hostages, including Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, were recovered from Rafah, attention has now shifted to the remaining hostages still alive in Gaza.
Many U.S. citizens may not realize that four American hostages are currently held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. This issue has received limited attention from U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration, which has made only a few statements about hostages with dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship being held by captive by Hamas in Gaza.
One of these statements came early Sunday morning when Biden said he was “devastated and outraged” by the Goldberg-Polin’s death.
Goldberg-Polin was one of eight U.S. hostages abducted by Hamas during the Oct. 7 massacres in southern Israel. With Hersh’s death confirmed, four of the eight are now confirmed by the IDF to have been killed by Hamas.
Four American hostages are still in captivity, and their current condition remains unknown.
Keith Siegel
Keith Siegel (64) was last seen with hostage Omri Miran in a video released by Hamas. In that video, Miran mentioned the recent Passover holiday, indicating the video was released soon after recording. Keith was abducted with his wife Aviva from their home in Kfar Aza. The couple was driven into the Gaza Strip in their own vehicle and kept together until Aviva’s release in the November hostage release deal.
Following her release, Aviva said her husband had not told Hamas that he was a U.S. citizen out of fear that Hamas would release him without her.
Sagui Dekel-Chen
Sagui Dekel-Chen was a project manager for the United Kingdom branch of the Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemet Le’Israel) which organizes the construction of schools and youth centers.
Dekel-Chen was abducted from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7. He was a member of the kibbutz’s security team, and engaged Hamas terrorists in combat before eventually being captured after several hours.
His father Jonathan spoke at a J Street event on the sidelines of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) last month, where he called on Democratic leaders to hold Hamas accountable for its actions.
Omer Neutra
Long Island-born Omer Neutra was serving as a tank commander in the IDF on Oct. 7 when he was abducted by terrorists. Omer’s parents, Orna and Ronen Neutra, have been active ever since, raising awareness about his plight, as well as those of the rest of the captives.
Like the parents of Goldberg-Polin, Omer’s parents took their message to both the Republican National Convention (RNC) and the DNC, calling for both sides to work toward the release of all the captives.
Like Omer, Edan Alexander was captured while serving in the IDF on Oct. 7. Alexander spoke with his parents on the phone that morning, shortly after the rocket attacks from Gaza began. He assured his mother that he was safe. About half an hour later, she was not able to reach him.
Both Omer and Edan were assigned to the same post in southern Israel on Oct. 7. As soldiers, they would be part of the last group released during a hostage deal, with Hamas considering soldiers to be more valuable for negotiations.
Besides these four men, three other U.S. citizens who were killed or fatally wounded on Oct. 7 are also being held by Hamas in Gaza: Itay Chen (19); Judith Weinstein Haggai (70); and Gadi Haggai (73).
In early August, Denver Post columnist Doug Friednash wrote about the remaining American hostages, asking why their plight did not arouse the same media publicity as other hostages or prisoners, such as Brittney Griner, a member of the U.S. women’s national basketball team and a three-time Olympic gold medalist. Griner received international attention in 2022 when she was detained in Russia on a drug offense. She was found guilty and sentenced to nine years but was later released in a prisoner exchange.
Friednash noted that 33 Americans were killed in the Oct. 7 Hamas massacres, while eight were taken captive. Four of those eight are now confirmed dead.
He noted that most Americans could probably not even name any of the U.S. hostages, and the lack of media focus on their situation or the U.S. government’s efforts to free them.
“And, we need to ask the question: why are these five [now four after the death of Hersh Goldberg-Polin] Americans forgotten? Is it because they are Jewish or dual citizens? Is it because our nation’s leaders believe this is predominantly Israel’s problem, not ours? Or, is it for some other political reason?” he wrote.
Almost one month later, those questions appear to be unanswered.
Following the return of the hostages bodies, 97 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on Oct. 7 remain in captivity in Gaza. This latest figure includes the bodies of at least 33 hostages who have already been confirmed deceased by Israel Defense Forces.
Israeli forces rescued a hostage found alone underground in Gaza on Tuesday, freeing a living captive from Hamas’ vast tunnel network for the first time since the Oct. 7 attack that ignited the war. The 52-year-old Israeli man was taken to a hospital in Israel, where members of his large Bedouin Arab family gathered around his bedside in a joyful reunion.
The rescue brought a rare moment of relief to Israelis after 10 months of war but also served as a painful reminder that dozens of hostages are still in captivity as international mediators try to broker a cease-fire in which they would be released.
Qaid Farhan Alkadi was found in a southern Gaza tunnel where hostages were suspected to be alongside terrorists and explosives, according to the military.
“Suddenly, I heard someone speaking Hebrew outside the door, I couldn’t believe it, I couldn’t believe it,” Alkadi told Israeli President Isaac Herzog in a phone call from his hospital bed, according to the president’s office.
The military said it applied “lessons” learned during previous operations while rescuing Alkadi. Earlier in the war, Israeli troops who encountered three hostages inside Gaza accidentally shot and killed them, believing them to be militants. Alkadi was one of eight members of Israel’s Bedouin Arab minority who were abducted on Oct. 7. He was working as a guard at a packing factory in Kibbutz Magen, one of several farming communities that came under attack. He has two wives and is the father of 11 children.
Israel believes there are still 108 hostages in Gaza and that more than 40 of them are dead. Most of the rest were freed during a weeklong cease-fire in November in exchange for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Alkadi is one of eight hostages to be rescued alive and the first of these rescued from underground, the Israeli military said. Alkadi was held in a number of locations during his 326 days in captivity, according to Israel’s military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari.
Footage released by the Israeli military showed Alkadi moments after the rescue. Unshaven and wearing a white tank top, he is seen sitting and smiling with soldiers before boarding a helicopter to a hospital. He appeared emaciated but officials described his condition as stable.
His large family gathered at the hospital in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba to welcome him home. One of his brothers held Alkadi’s infant son, who was born while he was in captivity and had not yet met his father, the brother said.
“We’re so excited to hug him and see him and tell him that we’re all here with him,” a family member who gave his name as Faez told Channel 12. “I hope that every hostage will come home so the families can experience this happiness.”
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the rescue was part of the army’s “daring and courageous activities conducted deep inside the Gaza Strip.”
President Herzog, in his phone call with Alkadi, told him: “Dear Farhan, how moving it is to hear your voice! Our brother has come home. Our brother has returned!”
Herzog’s office said Farhan expressed his gratitude and urged Israeli authorities to work to free the others. “People are suffering there. Do everything you can to bring people home. Work 24 hours, don’t sleep until they return. People are really suffering, you can’t imagine,” he said, according to a transcript of the call provide by Herzog’s office.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also spoke with Alkadi by phone soon after he arrived at the hospital. He said that Israel would rely on rescue operations and negotiations to bring the remaining hostages home.
“Both ways together require our military presence in the field, and unceasing military pressure on Hamas,” Netanyahu said.
Referring to Netanyahu by a traditional Arabic nickname, Alkadi thanked the prime minister for enabling him to see his family again, according to a video of the call provided by Netanyahu’s office. Alkadi reminded Netanyahu that “there are others waiting.” To which Netanyahu replied, “we haven’t forgotten anyone, just as we haven’t forgotten you.”
The Israeli military released footage of Alkadi being transported by helicopter after his rescue. Smiling, he gave a salute as the helicopter was in flight.
Hamas-led militants abducted some 250 people in the Oct. 7 attack, in which some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 40,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who do not say how many were militants. It has displaced 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people from their homes and caused heavy destruction across the besieged territory.
Israeli airstrikes continued on Tuesday across the Gaza Strip, and Palestinian officials said at least 18 people, including eight children, were killed in the attacks. Two previous Israeli operations to free hostages killed scores of Palestinians. Hamas says several hostages have been killed in Israeli airstrikes and failed rescue attempts. Israeli troops mistakenly killed three Israelis who escaped captivity in December.
Mazen Abu Siam, a close family friend waiting at the hospital, said the family was overjoyed to hear the news, but they were still praying for a cease-fire.
“We are waiting for a deal for one year,” Siam told The Associated Press.
The United States, Egypt and Qatar have spent months trying to negotiate an agreement in which the remaining hostages would be freed in exchange for a lasting cease-fire. Those talks are ongoing, but there has been no sign of any breakthrough. Netanyahu has faced intense criticism from families of the hostages and much of the Israeli public for not yet reaching a deal with Hamas to bring them home. Hamas hopes to trade the hostages for a lasting cease-fire, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners, including high-profile militants.
Last week, after the Israeli military recovered the bodies of six hostages in southern Gaza, Israel’s military spokesperson, Hagari, said the army was working to gather more intelligence for rescue operations. But he added that “we cannot bring everyone back through rescue operations alone.”
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
The United States hailed a “promising start” to Gaza cease-fire talks Thursday, as pressure mounted for a deal to halt the spread of a war that the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry said has killed 40,005. The conflict sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel has devastated Gaza, displaced nearly all of its population at least once and triggered a towering humanitarian crisis.
Talks involving CIA director William Burns opened in the Qatari capital Doha, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.
“Today is a promising start,” Kirby told reporters in Washington, adding: “There remains a lot of work to do.”
The talks were expected to continue on Friday, he said.
Hamas official Osama Hamdan said the movement did not take part in Thursday’s meeting but stood ready to join the indirect negotiations if they produced new commitments from Israel. The Palestinian group has demanded the implementation of a truce plan laid out in late May by President Joe Biden.
“If the mediators succeed in forcing the (Israeli) occupation to agree, we would, but so far there’s nothing new,” Hamdan told AFP.
He said Hamas would not take part in protracted negotiations that “give (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu more time to kill the Palestinian people”.
So far, there has been only one truce in November, when Gaza militants released 105 hostages seized in the October 7 attack, the Israelis among them in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
The latest diplomatic push comes as the health ministry in Gaza said the death toll in the besieged Palestinian territory had surpassed 40,000 — which UN chief Antonio Guterres said was “yet another reason” why a ceasefire was needed now.
“Given the… disturbing number of people who remain unaccounted for, who may be trapped or dead under the rubble, this number may, if anything, be an undercount,” his spokesman Farhan Haq said.
“This is yet another reason why we need to have a ceasefire now, as well as the release of all hostages and unimpeded humanitarian assistance.”
The Gaza health ministry, which does not provide a breakdown of civilian and militant casualties, said the tally included 40 deaths in the previous 24 hours. The Israeli military said it had killed “more than 17,000” Palestinian militants in Gaza since the war began.
– ‘Time is now’ –
British foreign minister David Lammy and his French counterpart Stephane Sejourne are to discuss the truce talks with Israel’s top diplomat Israel Katz on Friday. In Beirut on Wednesday, visiting US envoy Amos Hochstein said a deal in Gaza “would also help enable a diplomatic resolution here in Lebanon and that would prevent an outbreak of a wider war”.
“We have to take advantage of this window for diplomatic action and diplomatic solutions. That time is now,” he added.
Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel triggered the war and resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures. Militants also seized 251 people, 111 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead. Mediation efforts have repeatedly stalled since the week-long truce in November.
Hamas officials, some analysts and critics in Israel have said Netanyahu has sought to prolong the war for political gain. Israeli media this week quoted Defense Minister Yoav Gallant as privately telling a parliamentary committee that a hostage release deal “is stalling… in part because of Israel”.
Netanyahu’s office accused Gallant of adopting an “anti-Israel narrative” and said Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is “the only obstacle to a hostage deal”.
– Bloodied children –
The latest mediation push follows the July 31 killing of Sinwar’s predecessor, Hamas political leader and truce negotiator Ismail Haniyeh. His killing during a visit to Tehran sent fears of a wider conflagration soaring. Iran and its regional allies blamed Israel and vowed retaliation. Israel has not claimed responsibility for the attack. Western leaders have urged Tehran to avoid hitting Israel over Haniyeh’s killing, which came hours after an Israeli strike in Beirut killed Hezbollah’s military commander.
Fallout from the conflict has drawn in Iran-aligned groups from Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq and Syria.
More than 370 Hezbollah members have been killed in 10 months of near daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces, according to an AFP tally, more than the Iran-backed movement lost in the 2006 war with Israel. On the Israeli side, 22 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed, including in the annexed Golan Heights, according to military figures.
In Gaza, where the war has destroyed much of the territory’s housing and other infrastructure, relatively few deaths were reported on Thursday. In the deadliest bombardment, emergency services said air strikes killed five people in Gaza City. Israel’s military said troops had killed about 20 militants in Rafah, southern Gaza. On Wednesday, dead and wounded including bloodied children arrived at Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis after an Israeli strike.
“I was not pro-Hamas but now I support them and I want to fight,” one grieving man shouted.
Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has ordered Iran to strike Israel directly in retaliation for the killing in Tehran of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, sources told The New York Times. Haniyeh was assassinated in the Iranian capital Tehran early on Wednesday morning, an attack that drew threats of revenge on Israel and fueled further concern that the conflict in Gaza was turning into a wider Middle East war.
The Palestinian Islamist militant group and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards confirmed Haniyeh’s death. The Guards said it took place hours after he attended a swearing-in ceremony for Iran’s new president. Although the strike on Haniyeh was widely assumed to have been carried out by Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government made no claim of responsibility and said it would make no comment on the killing.
Haniyeh was killed by a missile that hit him “directly” in a state guesthouse where he was staying, Khalil Al-Hayya, a senior Hamas official, told a news conference in Tehran, quoting witnesses who were with Haniyeh. “Now we are waiting for the full investigation from the (Iranian) brothers,” Al-Hayya said. Haniyeh, normally based in Qatar, had been the face of Hamas’ international diplomacy as the war set off by the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7 has raged in Gaza. He had been taking part in internationally-brokered indirect talks on reaching a cease-fire in the Palestinian enclave.
The assassination occurred less than 24 hours after Israel claimed to have killed Hezbollah’s most senior military commander in the Lebanese capital Beirut in retaliation for a deadly rocket strike in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Two Lebanese security sources said on Wednesday that the body of Hezbollah operations chief Fuad Shukr had been found in the rubble of a building hit by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Netanyahu made no mention of Haniyeh’s killing in a televised statement on Wednesday evening but said Israel had delivered crushing blows to Iran’s proxies of late, including Hamas and Hezbollah, and would respond forcefully to any attack.
“Citizens of Israel, challenging days lie ahead. Since the strike in Beirut there are threats sounding from all directions. We are prepared for any scenario, and we will stand united and determined against any threat. Israel will exact a heavy price for any aggression against us from any arena,” he said.
The latest events appear to set back chances of any imminent cease-fire agreement in the nearly 10-month-old war in Gaza between Israel and the Iran-backed Hamas. Hamas’ armed wing said in a statement Haniyeh’s killing would “take the battle to new dimensions and have major repercussions.” Vowing to retaliate, Iran declared three days of national mourning and said the U.S. bore responsibility because of its support for Israel.
ISRAEL INVITES ‘HARSH PUNISHMENT,’ KHAMENEI SAYS
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Israel had provided the grounds for “harsh punishment for itself” and it was Tehran’s duty to avenge Haniyeh’s death. Iranian forces have already made strikes directly on Israel earlier in the Gaza war.
Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer told a briefing with journalists that Israel was committed to Gaza cease-fire negotiations and securing the release of Israeli hostages held by Palestinian militants in Gaza. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, at an event in Singapore, sidestepped a question on Haniyeh’s killing, saying a cease-fire deal in Gaza was key to avoiding wider regional escalation. He told Channel News Asia that the U.S. had neither been aware of nor involved in the killing.
Qatar, which has been brokering talks aimed at halting the fighting in Gaza along with Egypt, condemned Haniyeh’s killing as a dangerous escalation of the conflict.
“Political assassinations and continued targeting of civilians in Gaza while talks continue leads us to ask, how can mediation succeed when one party assassinates the negotiator on other side?” Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said on X.
Egypt said Haniyeh’s assassination showed a lack of political will on Israel’s part to calm tensions.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the killing and Palestinian factions in the Israeli-occupied West Bank called for a strike and mass demonstrations.
In Israel, the mood was buoyant as Israelis welcomed what they saw as a major achievement in the war against Hamas. Residents in besieged Gaza feared Haniyeh’s death would prolong the fighting that has devastated the enclave.
“This news is scary. We feel that he was like a father to us,” said Gaza resident Hachem Al-Saati.
MESHAAL IS LIKELY SUCCESSOR TO HANIYEH
Haniyeh’s most likely successor is Khaled Meshaal, his deputy-in-exile who lives in Qatar, analysts and Hamas officials said. Under Meshaal, Hamas emerged as an ever more important player in the Middle East conflict due to his charisma, popularity and regional standing, analysts said. Meshaal narrowly survived an attempt on his life in Jordan ordered by Netanyahu in 1997.
Appointed to the top Hamas job in 2017, Haniyeh moved between Turkey and Qatar’s capital Doha, escaping the travel curbs of the blockaded Gaza Strip and enabling him to act as a negotiator in the truce talks or to talk to Hamas’ ally Iran. Three of his sons were killed in an Israeli airstrike in April.
His deputy Saleh Al-Arouri was killed in January by Israel, leaving Yehya Al-Sinwar, the Hamas chief in Gaza and the architect of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, and Zaher Jabarin, the head of the group in the West Bank, in place but in hiding.
That assault by Hamas-led fighters killed about 1,200 people in southern Israeli communities and some 250 people were taken to Gaza as hostages, Israeli tallies say.
In response, Israel launched a ground and air offensive in the coastal enclave that has killed more than 39,400 people, according to Gaza health officials, and left more than 2 million facing a humanitarian crisis.
No end appears to be in sight for Israel’s campaign there as the cease-fire talks falter.
Ofir Akunis was solidly entrenched in the Knesset, serving in his 15th year as a lawmaker. The popular Likud figure — formerly a party spokesman and adviser to Benjamin Netanyahu— had held a number of ministerial roles over the last nine years and was minister of science and technology in the current government.
So, why exactly would the 50-year-old (now 51), not exactly known for an active role in the Diaspora, accept Netanyahu’s offer to become the consul general to New York in a post-Oct. 7 world?
“It’s a very good question. I think that we are living in challenging times. I think that it’s not less important to be here these days and represent the State of Israel and the Jewish people from New York,” Akunis told JNS in his office on Manhattan’s Second Ave.
“I think that a political leader should do more things in his career. And I think that this is the right place to be these days. Especially these days,” he said.
While Akunis generally hews close to Netanyahu in principle, he has carved out his own path, and while he rarely contradicts Netanyahu, he has avoided being sycophantic.
Netanyahu has been known to shuffle off political rivals and annoyances to diplomatic posts, but that doesn’t appear to be the case with Akunis. The position of consul general had been open since Asaf Zamir, appointed by the previous government, resigned in March 2023 to protest the advancement of judicial reform by Netanyahu.
Netanyahu floated firebrand Social Equality Minister May Golan for the post in April 2023, but backlash from the more left-wing American Jewish community quickly put that idea to bed. The consulate had been served by a series of acting consuls general until Akunis’s arrival.
While Akunis may lack diplomatic bona fides, his appointment was largely viewed as one of a professional, technocratic hand coming on to steady a ship that’s been rocking since Hamas’ massacre.
“I think that the very main issue here is the attacks on the Israeli and Jewish students in the universities and among the campuses. This is unacceptable,” Akunis said of his top priority since taking over in May.
His very first meeting, he told JNS, concerned the attacks on Jews and Israelis at Columbia and NYU.
“This is urgent, because we are a few weeks before the new year on the campuses, and I’m calling from here to the American people and to the American leaders to do whatever they can to stop” the violent antisemitic protests that took place in the spring.
“If someone wants to protest against the State of Israel or against the Jewish communities, he can do it,” Akunis said, but not by waving Hamas, Hezbollah, and ISIS flags, as was seen at a number of campus protests.
“To scream and shout, ‘Oct. 7 was only the beginning,’ this is unacceptable,” he said. “This is not freedom of speech. It’s freedom of hate.”
Akunis went so far as to say last week that New York City was in danger of falling under “radical Muslim occupation,” similar to European cities that have succumbed to violent Islamist riots and so-called no-go zones that are essentially off-limits to non-Muslims.
“I think that radical Islam, influenced by Tehran and the Axis of Evil, is a huge problem, not only to the State of Israel, not only to the Jewish communities. It’s the Axis of Evil versus the Western world,” Akunis told JNS.
“How do I know it? I can hear from here, from this office — the screaming of ‘Death to America, to Israel, glory to Palestine.’ So it’s not about us anymore,” said Akunis, describing protests that have taken place outside the consulate.
He warned again of “a lot of neighborhoods” around Europe under “radical Muslim occupation,” citing London, Paris, Brussels, and Malmö as examples.
“I didn’t know that such a thing would happen here in the United States,” Akunis said. “We can see it in the streets. It’s not my imagination.”
It is critical that Americans understand that the issue has gone far beyond the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, morphing into a broader anti-American bent, he said.
“I think that I need to send this match message to my American friends. I think that this is the right message,” asking people to open their eyes to the support for terrorism taking place on New York’s streets.
And it’s happening during a broader time of political uncertainty and upheaval in the United States. Akunis arrived in the midst of a critical election season. Asked who on the political battlefield he has found to partner with and who he is still trying to bring on board, Akunis said, “I’m trying to bring everybody to support Israel. I think that the American administration, American people, American leaders, must stand with Israel.”
He was quick to note, though, that “the Israelis are not part of the election campaign. The American people will choose the president and their administration. And we, of course, respect any result we’ll see here on Nov. 5. This is the main idea of democracy — the will of the people.
Perhaps getting in a delicate shot at those who have opined on Israel’s domestic political affairs, including New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, who called for Netanyahu to stand down as premier, Akunis said he was “sure that you, the Americans, will respect the will of the people in Israel.”
Regarding his early dealings with American Jews, Akunis stressed the unity he’s seen in the community members that he’s been dealing with on the street level. “This unity reflects strength, and not the opposite. We will not be victims anymore,” he said, adding that “in the darkest days, you can see the light.”
In turn, the Jewish community looked for unity from its supposed partners and allies in other American minority and religious communities in the aftermath of Oct. 7, but largely encountered “radio silence”.
While American Jewish leaders have been quick to note their deep disappointment, worry and anger on that front, Akunis inferred to JNS that those concerns are overblown by the media, which he said tends to amplify the negative.
“I’m talking with them all the time,” he said of those erstwhile partners. “Beyond the big headlines, I think that most Americans, including the communities that you just mentioned, support Israel. There’s a lot of voices for Israel.”
While Akunis said he has not received a straight answer on why those communities went silent during Israel’s darkest hour, he is “asking them to reflect on their solidarity with Israel,” and he expects attitudes will change soon.
Israel killed a senior commander in the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on Wednesday, the second top field leader killed in less than a month, and the group said it retaliated by firing scores of rockets at Israeli military positions near the border. The Israeli military estimated that around 100 rockets were fired and said there were no reports of casualties.
International diplomats are scrambling to prevent the near-daily clashes between Israel and Hezbollah from spiraling into an all-out war that could possibly lead to a direct confrontation between Israel and Iran, which is Hezbollah’s main backer. Hezbollah says it will stop its attacks once Israel agrees to a cease-fire with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Some Israeli officials have said they are seeking a diplomatic solution to the standoff and hope to avoid war. At the same time, they have warned that the scenes of destruction seen in Gaza will be repeated in Lebanon if war breaks out. Hezbollah, meanwhile, is far more powerful than Hamas and believed to have a vast arsenal of rockets and missiles capable of striking anywhere in Israel.
The nearly nine-month war in Gaza has caused massive devastation across the besieged territory and displaced most of its 2.3 million people, often multiple times. Israel’s military estimated Tuesday that around 1.9 million people — more than 80% of all Palestinians in the Gaza Strip — are now clustered into the territory’s central region.
Evacuees have been told by Israel to seek refuge in an overcrowded coastal area filled with sprawling tent camps where there are few basic services. Israeli restrictions, the ongoing fighting and the breakdown of law and order have curtailed humanitarian aid efforts, causing widespread hunger and sparking fears of famine. The top U.N. court has concluded there is a “plausible risk of genocide” in Gaza — a charge Israel strongly denies.
Israel launched the war in Gaza after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250. Since then, Israeli ground offensives and bombardments have killed more than 37,900 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
NEW YORK (AP) — Victims of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel sued Iran, Syria and North Korea on Monday, saying their governments supplied the militants with money, weapons and know-how needed to carry out the assault that precipitated Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in New York, seeks at least $4 billion in damages for “a coordination of extrajudicial killings, hostage takings, and related horrors for which the defendants provided material support and resources.”
Iran’s mission to the United Nations declined to comment on the allegations, while Syria and North Korea did not respond.
The United States has deemed Iran, Syria and North Korea to be state sponsors of terrorism, and Washington has designated Hamas as what’s known as a specially designated global terrorist.
Because such countries rarely abide by court rulings against them in the United States, if the lawsuit’s plaintiffs are successful, they could seek compensation from a fund created by Congress that allows American victims of terrorism to receive payouts. The money comes from seized assets, fines or other penalties leveled against those that, for example, do business with a state sponsor of terrorism.
The lawsuit draws on previous court findings, reports from U.S. and other government agencies, and statements over some years by Hamas, Iranian and Syrian officials about their ties. The complaint also points to indications that Hamas fighters used North Korean weapons in the Oct. 7 attack. But the suit doesn’t provide specific evidence that Tehran, Damascus or Pyongyang knew in advance about the assault. It accuses the three countries of providing weapons, technology and financial support necessary for the attack to occur.
Iran has denied knowing about the Oct. 7 attack ahead of time, though officials up to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have praised the assault. Iran has armed Hamas as a counter to Israel, which the Islamic Republic has long viewed as its regional archenemy.
In the years since the collapse of Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, Iran and Israel have been locked in a shadow war of attacks on land and at sea. Those attacks exploded into the open after an apparent Israeli attack targeting Iran’s embassy complex in Damascus, Syria, during the Israel-Hamas war, which sparked Tehran’s unprecedented drone-and-missile attack on Israel in April.
Neighboring Syria has relied on Iranian support to keep embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad in power amid a grinding civil war that began with the 2011 Arab Spring protests. Like Iran, Syria also offered public support for Hamas after the Oct. 7 attack. North Korea denies that it arms Hamas. However, a militant video and weapons seized by Israel show Hamas fighters likely fired North Korean weapons during the Oct. 7 attack
South Korean officials, two experts on North Korean arms and an Associated Press analysis of weapons captured on the battlefield by Israel point toward Hamas using Pyongyang’s F-7 rocket-propelled grenade, a shoulder-fired weapon that fighters typically use against armored vehicles. The lawsuit specifically cites the use of the F-7 grenade in the attack as a sign of Pyongyang’s involvement.
“Through this case, we will be able to prove what occurred, who the victims were, who the perpetrators were — and it will not just create a record in real time, but for all of history,” said one of the attorneys, James Pasch of the ADL, also called the Anti-Defamation League. The Jewish advocacy group frequently speaks out against antisemitism and extremism.
Hamas fighters killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted about 250 during the Oct. 7 attack. Israel invaded Gaza in response. The war has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. It doesn’t say how many were civilians or fighters.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of over 125 plaintiffs, including the estates and relatives of people who were killed, plus people who were physically and/or emotionally injured. All are related to, or are themselves, U.S. citizens. Under U.S. law, foreign governments can be held liable, in some circumstances, for deaths or injuries caused by acts of terrorism or by providing material support or resources for them.
The 1976 statute cited in the lawsuit, the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, is a frequent tool for American plaintiffs seeking to hold foreign governments accountable. In one example, a federal judge in Washington ordered North Korea in 2018 to pay $500 million in a wrongful death suit filed by the parents of Otto Warmbier, an American college student who died shortly after being released from that country.
People held as prisoners by Iran in the past have successfully sued Iran in U.S. federal court, seeking money earlier frozen by the U.S.
The new lawsuit joins a growing list of Israel-Hamas war-related cases in U.S. courts.
Last week, for example, Israelis who were taken hostage or lost loved ones during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack sued the United Nations agency that aids Palestinians, claiming it has helped finance the militants by paying agency staffers in U.S. dollars and thereby funneling them to money-changers in Gaza who allegedly give a cut to Hamas.
The agency, known as UNRWA, has denied that it knowingly aids Hamas or any other militant group.
___
Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. AP writers Courtney Bonnell and Eric Tucker in Washington contributed.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
The White House reportedly canceled a meeting with Israel after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed the U.S. was withholding military aid in a video message. The meeting was scheduled for Thursday to discuss Iran, but top advisers to President Joe Biden were enraged by the video, Axios reported, citing U.S. officials.
“This decision makes it clear that there are consequences for pulling such stunts,” a U.S. official told Axios.
Netanyahu said in the video it was “inconceivable that, in the past few months, the administration has been withholding weapons and ammunitions to Israel.”
President Joe Biden has delayed delivering certain heavy bombs since May over concerns about Israel’s killing of civilians in Gaza. Yet the administration has gone to lengths to avoid any suggestion that Israeli forces have crossed a red line in the deepening Rafah invasion, which would trigger a more sweeping ban on arms transfers.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said they have provided Israel with billions of dollars in weapons and had only paused one weapons shipment.
“We genuinely do not know what he is talking about,” she said.
Netanyahu also claimed Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a recent visit to Israel, said he was working around the clock to end the delays. However, Blinken said Tuesday the only pause was related to those heavy bombs from May.
“We, as you know, are continuing to review one shipment that President Biden has talked about with regard to 2,000-pound bombs because of our concerns about their use in a densely populated area like Rafah,” Blinken said during a State Department news conference. “That remains under review. “But everything else is moving as it normally would.”
U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein told Netanyahu in person that his accusations were inaccurate and out of line, Israeli officials told Axios. National security adviser Jake Sullivan will still be meeting with his Israeli counterpart, Tzachi Hanegbi. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant will also be visiting early next week, officials told Axios.
In March, Netanyahu canceled a meeting with U.S. officials after they declined to veto a UN Security Council resolution that mentioned a cease-fire in Gaza.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told CNN that the group doesn’t know how many Israeli hostages are still alive. During the interview, filmed in Lebanon, Hamdan was asked about the hostages. “How many of those 120 are still alive?” Hamdan was asked.
“I don’t have any idea about that,” he said. “No one has any idea about this.”
Hamdan, a member of Hamas’ politburo, is based in Lebanon but maintains contact with Hamas leadership in Gaza. He spoke about the hostage release cease-fire deal, which has seen little progress since U.S. President Joe Biden unveiled the proposal last month. The Biden administration has pointed at Hamas for being a significant barrier to achieving the deal.
Speaking to reporters at the G7 summit, Biden said: “I’ve laid out an approach that has been endorsed by the U.N. Security Council, by the G7, by the Israelis, and the biggest hang-up so far is Hamas refusing to sign on even though they have submitted something similar.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday claimed Hamas had not accepted the deal, but presented “numerous changes” that went beyond the group’s previous demands.
“Hamas proposed numerous changes to the proposal that was on the table. Some of the changes are workable and some are not,” Blinken said. “As a result, the war will go on and more people will suffer.
“It’s time for the haggling to stop and the cease-fire to start. Israel accepted the proposal as it is, Hamas didn’t. It is clear what needs to happen.”
Hamdan said Israel’s position regarding the cease-fire length is unacceptable to Hamas.
“The Israelis want the cease-fire only for six weeks and then they want to go back to the fight,” Hamdan said, adding that the U.S. “did not convince the Israelis to accept” a permanent cease-fire.
In the interview, Hamdan repeatedly deflected any Hamas responsibility for the war in Gaza or the state of the hostages. Hamdan referred to the “Al-Aqsa Flood” (Hamas’ name for the Oct. 7 invasion and terror attack) as “a reaction against the occupation.”
Asked about recent messages published by The Wall Street Journal, allegedly leaked from Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and stating his determination to continue fighting, Hamdan dismissed them as fake.
“It was fake messages done by someone who is not Palestinian and was sent (to the) Wall Street Journal as part of the pressure against Hamas and provoking the people against the leader,” Hamdan claimed, without providing evidence.
Hamdan also blamed Israel for the mistreatment of Israeli hostages in Gaza. Responding to the testimony of an Israeli doctor who said the hostages had suffered mental and physical abuse, Hamdan claimed, “I believe if they have a mental problem, this is because of what Israel has done in Gaza.”
A Hamas spokesman accused U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken of being “part of the problem” as he urged the group to accept a cease-fire deal with Israel, Breitbart reported. The spokesman was not identified in the story. Blinken has been on a diplomatic mission in the Middle East following a United Nations Security Council resolution that formalized the Biden administration’s ceasefire and hostage release proposal, which Israel had accepted under U.S. pressure while maintaining its goal to dismantle Hamas’ military and governing capabilities.
The Biden administration has been pressing Hamas to accept the deal, urging countries with influence over the group to apply pressure. However, Hamas has continued to reject the proposal, demanding additional concessions. The State Department stated last week the current proposal is “virtually identical” to past Hamas proposals. As Breitbart News pointed out, Hamas had previously rejected similar plans when President Joe Biden announced the proposal.
Hamas’s primary objection is the lack of an explicit guarantee of a permanent cessation of hostilities from Israel. For weeks, the group has insisted on a written guarantee of a permanent ceasefire from the U.S.
Earlier this week, Hamas expressed approval of the U.N. Security Council resolution but emphasized the need for ongoing negotiations. Subsequently, the group released a formal statement on Tuesday outlining additional requirements, such as gaining authority over the Gaza-Egypt border.
Additionally, they sought adjustments to the schedule for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
On Wednesday, Blinken criticized Hamas’ response during a press conference in Doha with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, the Times of Israel reported.
“Hamas has proposed numerous changes to the proposal that was on the table. Some of the changes are workable, some are not,” Blinken said. “A deal was on the table that was virtually identical to the proposal that Hamas made on May 6 — a deal that the entire world is behind, a deal Israel has accepted.
“Hamas could have answered with a single word: ‘Yes.’ Instead, Hamas waited nearly two weeks and then proposed more changes, a number of which go beyond positions that had previously been taken and accepted.”
On the other hand, Hamas refuted the notion that its demands were new.
Following his visit to Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and Qatar, Blinken is expected to return to the U.S. without securing a deal. He has vowed to continue efforts to broker an agreement.
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
Hamas accepts a U.N. Security Council ceasefire resolution and is ready to negotiate over the details, senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters on Tuesday, adding that it was up to Washington to ensure that Israel abides by it.
Hamas accepts the UN security council resolution in regard to the ceasefire, withdrawal of Israeli troops and swap of hostages for detainees held by Israel, he said.
“The U.S. administration is facing a real test to carry out its commitments in compelling the occupation to immediately end the war in an implementation of the UN Security Council resolution,” Abu Zuhri said.
The reaction to the rescue of four Israeli hostages from Gaza is a microcosm of the past 70 years of this conflict. Every time Palestinians pay the price for acting out in some horrific, irrational, self-destructive, violent way, their defenders want to rewind history to a more convenient moment — this time to Oct. 6, 2023.
Sorry, that’s not how life works. Hamas, the chosen political entity of Gaza — the overwhelming choice of Palestinian civilians, in fact — launched this round of the conflict by massacring, sexually torturing, and kidnapping Israelis whose only sin was attending a music festival. Palestinians took hundreds of these hostages back to the Gaza Strip — a place Arabs have political autonomy over for nearly 20 years — and held them in the middle of densely populated areas hoping to dissuade Israel from liberating them, or, if it did, to create as many martyrs as possible.
Critics of Israel now ask the usual dishonest question: Are four lives worth the alleged 200-plus Arabs that were lost rescuing them?
Israel is the only nation on earth that is tasked with protecting its own people and its enemies. Every innocent lost life is, of course, a tragedy. But if you don’t want to be placed in harm’s way, don’t hold hostages in your homes and neighborhoods, and don’t cheer and support a government that puts your life in constant danger for a lost cause. This is the reality of the world.
Now, if reports are correct, Hamas — and perhaps “civilians” (it’s difficult to tell because terrorists are often dressed as noncombatants) — opened fire on the rescuers. The Israelis, who do not indiscriminately target civilians, fired back, as they should. Whatever the specifics, every lost life is Hamas’ fault.
But, as always, it also needs to be stressed that the casualty numbers that are endlessly repeated by the establishment media are fiction — as everyone in those newsrooms is surely aware. So, we must assume outlets like The Washington Post and CNN — which also detestably contends that the hostages had been “released” — are fellow travelers. One BBC interviewer even asked an IDF spokesman if Israel had warned Palestinians of their sting operation.
Then again, even if there were over 200 dead, it is also surely the case that many of the dead were members of Hamas or holding hostages of their own volition or helping those holding hostages. Avoid doing so if you value your life.
The “Health Ministry” makes no distinction between terrorists and civilians, and in this case there might be little difference. Among those holding the Israelis hostage in their homes in Nuseirat, for instance, were a “journalist” (who apparently worked for Al Jazeera and the U.S.-based Palestine Chronicle, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit) and a “doctor.” The entire neighborhood was ostensibly under UN control. We already know that UN workers had likely participated in the Oct. 7 kidnappings and UNRWA schools are used by Hamas bases of operation.
Even now, there’s a (terrible) ceasefire deal on the table being pushed by Joe Biden (still chumming for antisemitic votes) that Hamas continues to reject. Would we not expect the United States to act the same way as Israel if some homicidal cult had our people?
In the end, of course, this could all end today if the hostages were returned and Hamas would unconditionally surrender. Israel haters, who fashion themselves peaceniks, will blame everyone — Netanyahu, Biden, colonialism, racism, etc., etc. — but the Islamists who are the cause of this war.
Then again, the entire conflict could end if the Palestinians would stop turning to nihilistic theocrats to lead them and accept Israel’s existence.
The leader of Hamas said on Wednesday the group would demand a permanent end to the war in Gaza and Israeli withdrawal as part of a ceasefire plan, dealing an apparent blow to a truce proposal touted last week by U.S. President Joe Biden. Israel, meanwhile, said there would be no halt to fighting during ceasefire talks, and launched a new assault on a central section of the Gaza Strip near the last city yet to be stormed by its tanks.
The remarks by Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh appeared to deliver the Palestinian militant group’s reply to the proposal that Biden unveiled last week. Washington had said it was waiting to hear an answer from Hamas to what Biden described as an Israeli initiative.
“The movement and factions of the resistance will deal seriously and positively with any agreement that is based on a comprehensive ending of the aggression and the complete withdrawal and prisoners swap,” Haniyeh said.
Asked whether Haniyeh’s remarks amounted to the group’s reply to Biden, a senior Hamas official replied to a text message from Reuters with a “thumbs up” emoji.
Washington is still pressing hard to reach an agreement. CIA director William Burns met senior officials from mediators Qatar and Egypt on Wednesday in Doha to discuss the ceasefire proposal.
Since a brief week-long truce in November, all attempts to arrange a ceasefire have failed, with Hamas insisting on its demand for a permanent end to the conflict, while Israel says it is prepared to discuss only temporary pauses until the militant group is defeated.
Biden has repeatedly declared that ceasefires were close over the past several months, only for no truce to materialize. Notably, in February Biden said Israel had agreed to a ceasefire by the start of the Ramadan Muslim holy month on March 10, a deadline which passed with military operations in full swing. But last week’s announcement came with far greater fanfare from the White House, and at a time when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under mounting domestic political pressure to chart a path to end the eight-month-old war and negotiate the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
Three U.S. officials told Reuters Biden, having obtained Israel’s agreement for the proposal, had deliberately announced it without warning the Israelis he would do so, to narrow the room for Netanyahu to back away.
“We didn’t ask permission to announce the proposal,” said a senior U.S. official granted anonymity to speak freely about the negotiations. “We informed the Israelis we were going to give a speech on the situation in Gaza. We did not go into great detail about what it was.”
Hamas, who rule Gaza, precipitated the war by attacking Israeli territory on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Around half of the hostages were freed in the war’s only truce so far, which lasted a week in November.
Israel’s military assault on Gaza has killed more than 36,000 people, according to health officials in the territory, who say thousands more dead are feared buried under the rubble.
ISRAEL LUKEWARM
Although Biden described the ceasefire proposal as an Israeli offer, Israel’s government has been lukewarm in public. A top Netanyahu aide confirmed on Sunday Israel had made the proposal even though it was “not a good deal.” The full details have not been published, but Israel insists that it would not sign up to any proposal that requires it to halt the war before Hamas is completely destroyed. The militants, meanwhile, have shown no sign of surrender and their main leaders are still at large.
“The outline allows Israel to realize all of the objectives: to destroy Hamas militarily and its governing capabilities, to bring home our hostages, and ensure that Gaza can never form a threat to us again,” Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said on Wednesday of the ceasefire proposal.
Far-right members of Netanyahu’s government have pledged to quit if he agrees to a peace deal that leaves Hamas in place, a move that could force a new election and end the political career of Israel’s longest-serving leader. Centrist opponents who joined Netanyahu’s war cabinet in a show of unity at the outset of the conflict have also threatened to quit, saying his government has no plan.
NEW ASSAULT IN CENTRAL GAZA
Meanwhile, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said there would be no let-up in Israel’s offensive while negotiations over the ceasefire proposal were under way.
“Any negotiations with Hamas would be conducted only under fire,” Gallant said in remarks carried by Israeli media after he flew aboard a warplane to inspect the Gaza front. Israel announced a new operation against Hamas in central Gaza on Wednesday, where Palestinian medics said airstrikes had killed dozens of people.
The armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said they had fought gun battles with Israeli forces in areas throughout the enclave and fired anti-tank rockets and shells.
“The sounds of bombardment didn’t stop all night,” said Aya, 30, a displaced woman in Deir Al-Balah, a small city in the central Gaza Strip, now the only major population center in the enclave yet to be stormed by Israeli tanks.
Two children were among the dead laid out on Wednesday in the city’s Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, one of the last hospitals functioning in Gaza. Mourners said the children had been killed along with their mother, who had been unable to leave when others in the neighborhood did.
“This is not war, it is destruction that words are unable to express,” said their father Abu Mohammed Abu Saif.
A.F. Branco Cartoon—This is a memorial for those we lost in uniform, who gave their lives so that we, as a country, could remain free. We as a country have to do our part to keep it free from those who seek to destroy our freedom by making sure we vote against the domestic enemies who promote the very ideals our fallen heroes fought and died to prevent, such as Communism, fascism, and an all-powerful decentralized big intrusive Government that fights against the will of the people. Courtesy of Americans for Limited Government.
A.F. Branco Cartoon – Many forget what this 3-day weekend of BBQs, friends, and family cost. Veterans who laid down their lives so we could enjoy the freedom and prosperity this could have to offer. It’s not a day of celebration but a day of remembrance for our fallen vets.
Feds Ban Memorial Day Event to Honor Fallen Heroes From National Cemetery, Call it a ‘Demonstration’
By Margaret Flavin – May 22, 2024
Since the 1960s, the Knights of Columbus have held a Memorial Day event at the Poplar Grove National Cemetery in Petersburg, VA. For the last two years, however, The National Park Service (NPS) has refused permission for the event due to a new policy prohibiting “religious services” and calling the ceremony to honor this nation’s fallen heroes a “demonstration.” The park service has instead said the event must take place in a nearby “free speech zone.”
The Knights and their attorneys say the decision by park officials violates the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. READ MORE…
A.F. Branco Cartoon—Once again, Biden bends the knee to people who hate America and do not respect the constitutional foundations that protect our individual rights and freedoms. Some say he’s trying to work both sides of the fence for purely political reasons.
Dem Strategists Agree Biden is TOAST in November if He Loses in Michigan
By Mike LaChance – May 8, 2024
Some top Democrat strategists are sweating Joe Biden’s chances in Michigan in November, a state they agree is a must-win for Democrats. Trump won Michigan in 2016 and he can certainly win there again. A recent poll has Trump ahead of Biden in the state by a whopping 15 points. Biden has multiple problems in Michigan, including people who are angry about his (weak) support for Israel and union workers who are rightly, very concerned about the economy. READ MORE…
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump. READ MORE…
A.F. Branco Cartoon – House Republicans cry foul as Speaker Hortman cuts off debate over a paid leave tax hike -Democracy dying in Democrat darkness.
House Republicans cry foul as Speaker Hortman cuts off debate over a paid leave tax hike
By Hank Long – May 16, 2024
Can anything good happen after midnight? That adage was tested in both legislative chambers at the Minnesota Capitol in the early hours of Thursday morning. As state lawmakers run out of hours in the remaining three days of session to tackle supplemental budget spending, bonding legislation and a few DFL signature policy bills that are drawing Republican ire, chaos broke out on the House floor just after midnight Thursday. Boisterous calls for House Speaker Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, to recognize Republicans wishing to speak bellowed through the chamber after the top-ranking Democrat abruptly cut off a lengthy debate over a bill that would increase the payroll taxes on a new state-managed paid leave program that has yet to be implemented. READ MORE…
A.F. Branco Cartoon – Bernie Sanders says Israel is exercising genocide for trying to eliminate the Hamas terrorists that murdered 1700+ of their people on October 7, 2023. Calls for a halt to U.S. weapons support to Israel.
Trump Blasts Biden for Threatening Arms Embargo Against Israel If It Invades Rafah to Finish Off Hamas in Gaza
By Kristin Taylor – May 9th,2024
President Trump blasted Joe Biden in a Truth Social post early Thursday after Biden threatened to withhold offensive weapons (bombs and artillery shells) to Israel over Israel’s plans to invade the southern Gaza city of Rafah to finish off Hamas in the terror group’s last stronghold. Biden is opposed to the military incursion by Israel because he says Palestinian civilians will be killed. Biden also confirmed that he has withheld a shipment of 2,000 lb. bombs to Israel. READ MORE…
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
A.F. Branco Cartoon – Biden continues his threat of withholding weapons to Israel in light of his recent poll numbers sinking. Israel seems resolute in its effort to rid Hamas since they slaughtered 1700 of their innocent civilians on October 7th. Biden stated that his support for Israel is unshakable, but the latest polls appear to have shaken that unshakable support.
Why is Biden throwing Israel under the bus?
By Kelly McCarthy – May 15, 2024
Despite the traditional support from American Jewish voters for his party, and despite the US’s long-standing friendly relationship with the only democracy in the Middle East, Joe Biden – or whomever is operating him – has reneged on the billion dollar promise to send assistance to Israel. READ MORE…
A.F. Branco Cartoon – The campus protesters are being organized by leftist organizations bent on destroying the Western way of life. Platforms like TikTok and college professors are a huge part of the brainwashing going on with our youth. Imagine being thought to hate the most free and prosperous country on earth while trying to change it into a tyrannical banana republic Sh*t-hole.
Radical Protest Leader Linked to the Anti-Israel Campus Demonstrations Traveled to Communist Cuba for “Resistance Training”
By Jim Hoft – May 15, 2024
We are witnessing the unification of the radical Islamic and Marxist movement in America. A recent investigation into the highly organized nationwide campus protests across America found that several leaders of the anti-Israel movement traveled to communist Cuba for “resistance training.” The anti-Israel protesters were associated with Black Lives Matter activists who allegedly provided training techniques to the Jew-hating mobs who set up camps on numerous American college campuses. Investigators say BLM leader Manolo De Los Santos is tied to the movement. Manolo De Los Santos hails Hamas’ terror attacks as “heroic,” and calls for the destruction of Israel. READ MORE…
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
A.F. Branco Cartoon – It’s beginning to look a lot like Kristallnaught from the 1930s Germany with the protest and violence erupting in and around our universities across the nation.
“Let 10 Million Cop Cars Burn!” – Radical Pro-Hamas Terror Group ‘Rachel Corrie’s Ghost Brigade’ Admits to Torching 15 Portland Police Cars in ‘Preemptive Attack’
By Jim Hoft – May 6th, 2024
Fifteen police vehicles were torched at the Police training facility near the Portland Airport last week.
The case was being investigated as arson. READ MORE…
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
Israeli Defvense Forces reported on Monday that they’ve begun attacks against Hamas targets in Rafah, Gaza Strip, after the latest round of talks on a proposed cease-fire took a turn unsatisfactory to Israeli leadership. The news came after Hamas announced it had accepted an Egyptian-Qatari proposal for a cease-fire to halt the seven-month-long war with Israel in Gaza, hours after Israel ordered about 100,000 Palestinians to begin evacuating from the southern city of Rafah, signaling that a long-promised ground invasion there could be imminent.
Israel’s military spokesperson said Monday that all proposals regarding negotiations to free hostages in Gaza are examined seriously, and that in parallel it continues to operate in the Hamas-ruled territory.
“We examine every answer and response in the most seriously manner and are exhausting every possibility regarding negotiations and returning the hostages,” Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said when asked during a media briefing whether Hamas saying it accepted a cease-fire proposal would impact a planned offensive in the Gaza city of Rafah.
“In parallel, we are still operating in the Gaza Strip and will continue to do so.”
An Israeli official says Hamas approved a “softened” Egyptian proposal that was not acceptable and not approved by Israel, which apparently keeping up airstrikes on the Rafah hideouts of Hamas terrorists, as covered live by Newsmax.
Newsmax’s John Huddy is on the ground in Israel as the sound of strikes rang in the air, reportedly from nearby Rafah.
“This would appear to be a ruse intended to make Israel look like the side refusing a deal,” said the Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Israel’s Channel 12 quotes Israeli officials saying Israel’s negotiating team has just received Hamas’ response from the mediators. The report says Israel is now carefully evaluating the Hamas response and will issue orderly comments later this evening.
It says the Israeli officials are already saying “this is not the same proposal” for a deal that Israel and Egypt agreed upon 10 days ago, and that served as the basis for the indirect negotiations since then.
“All kinds of clauses” have been inserted, according to the TV report.
These new clauses, among other issues, relate to the cardinal questions of if, how and when the war would end, and what kind of guarantees are being offered to that effect.
Hamas, the report noted, had been toughening its demands in recent days, and demanding the war end during the first, 40-day phase of the deal, rather than in the second or third phases.
Israel, for its part, has repeatedly rejected ending the war as part of a hostage deal at all, instead insisting it will resume fighting once the deal is implemented, in accordance with its twin war goals: returning the hostages and destroying Hamas’s military and governance capacities.
Earlier, Hamas said in a brief statement that its chief, Ismail Haniyeh, had informed Qatari and Egyptian mediators that the group accepted their cease-fire proposal. The statement gave no details of the accord.
There has been no successful agreement on a cease-fire in Gaza since a week-long pause in the fighting in November. The Hamas announcement of an agreement came hours after Israel ordered the evacuation of parts of Rafah, the city on Gaza’s southern edge that has served as the last sanctuary for around half of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents.
In recent days, Egyptian and Hamas officials have said the cease-fire would take place in a series of stages during which Hamas would release hostages it is holding in exchange for Israeli troop pullbacks from Gaza.
It is not clear whether the deal will meet Hamas’ key demand of bringing about an end to the war and complete Israeli withdrawal.
Hamas said in a statement Haniyeh had delivered the news in a phone call with Qatar’s prime minister and Egypt’s intelligence minister. After the release of the statement, Palestinians erupted in cheers in the sprawling tent camps around Rafah, hoping the deal meant an Israeli attack had been averted.
Israel’s closest allies, including the United States, have repeatedly said Israel should not attack Rafah. The looming operation has raised global alarm over the fate of around 1.4 million Palestinians sheltering there.
Aid agencies have warned that an offensive will worsen Gaza’s humanitarian catastrophe and bring a surge of more civilian deaths in an Israeli campaign that in nearly seven months has killed 34,000 people and devastated the territory.
President Joe Biden spoke Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and reiterated U.S. concerns about an invasion of Rafah. Biden said that a cease-fire with Hamas is the best way to protect the lives of Israeli hostages held in Gaza, a National Security Council spokesperson said on condition of anonymity to discuss the call before an official White House statement was released.
Hamas and key mediator Qatar said that invading Rafah will derail efforts by international mediators to broker a cease-fire. Days earlier, Hamas had been discussing a U.S.-backed proposal that reportedly raised the possibility of an end to the war and a pullout of Israeli troops in return for the release of all hostages held by the group. Israeli officials have rejected that trade-off, vowing to continue their campaign until Hamas is destroyed.
Netanyahu said Monday that seizing Rafah, which Israel says is the last significant Hamas stronghold in Gaza, was vital to ensuring the terrorists can’t rebuild their military capabilities and repeat the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war.
Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an army spokesman, said about 100,000 people were being ordered to move from parts of Rafah to a nearby Israel-declared humanitarian zone called Muwasi, a makeshift camp on the coast. He said that Israel has expanded the size of the zone and that it included tents, food, water and field hospitals.
It wasn’t immediately clear, however, if that material was already in place to accommodate the new arrivals.
Around 450,000 displaced Palestinians already are sheltering in Muwasi. The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, said it has been providing them with aid. But conditions are squalid, with few bathrooms or sanitation facilities in the largely rural area, forcing families to dig private latrines.
After the evacuation order announcement Monday, Palestinians in Rafah wrestled with having to uproot their extended families once again for an unknown fate, exhausted after months living in sprawling tent camps or crammed into schools or other shelters in and around the city. Few who spoke to The Associated Press wanted to risk staying.
Mohammed Jindiyah said that at the beginning of the war, he had tried to hold out in his home in northern Gaza after Israel ordered an evacuation there in October. He ended up suffering through heavy bombardment before fleeing to Rafah. He is complying with the order this time but was unsure now whether to move to Muwasi or another town in central Gaza.
“We are 12 families, and we don’t know where to go. There is no safe area in Gaza,” he said.
Sahar Abu Nahel, who fled to Rafah with 20 family members including her children and grandchildren, wiped tears from her cheeks, despairing at a new move.
“I have no money or anything. I am seriously tired, as are the children,” she said. “Maybe it’s more honorable for us to die. We are being humiliated.”
Israeli military leaflets were dropped with maps detailing a number of eastern neighborhoods of Rafah to evacuate, warning that an attack was imminent and anyone who stays “puts themselves and their family members in danger.” Text messages and radio broadcasts repeated the message.
UNRWA won’t evacuate from Rafah so it can continue to provide aid to those who stay behind, said Scott Anderson, the agency’s director in Gaza.
“We will provide aid to people wherever they choose to be,” he told the AP.
The U.N. says an attack on Rafah could disrupt the distribution of aid keeping Palestinians alive across Gaza. The Rafah crossing into Egypt, a main entry point for aid to Gaza, lies in the evacuation zone. The crossing remained open Monday after the Israeli order.
Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, condemned the “forced, unlawful” evacuation order and the idea that people should go to Muwasi.
“The area is already overstretched and devoid of vital services,” Egeland said. He said that an Israeli assault could lead to “the deadliest phase of this war.”
Israel’s bombardment and ground offensives in Gaza have killed more than 34,700 Palestinians, around two-thirds of them children and women, according to pro-Hamas Gaza health officials. The tally doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants. More than 80% of the population of 2.3 million have been driven from their homes, and hundreds of thousands in the north are on the brink of famine, according to the U.N.
Tensions escalated Sunday when Hamas fired rockets at Israeli troops positioned on the border with Gaza near Israel’s main crossing for delivering humanitarian aid, killing four soldiers. Israel shuttered the crossing — but Shoshani said it wouldn’t affect how much aid enters Gaza as others are working.
Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes on Rafah killed 22 people, including children and two infants, according to a hospital.
The war was sparked by the unprecedented Oct. 7 raid into southern Israel in which Hamas and other terrorists killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250 hostages. After exchanges during a November cease-fire, Hamas is believed to still hold about 100 Israelis captive as well the bodies of around 30 others.
The mediators over the cease-fire — the United States, Egypt and Qatar — had appeared to scramble to salvage a cease-fire deal they had been trying to push through the past week. Egypt said it was in touch with all sides Monday to “prevent the situation from … getting out of control.”
CIA Director William Burns, who had been in Cairo for talks on the deal, headed to meet the prime minister of Qatar, an official familiar with the matter said. It wasn’t clear whether a subsequent trip to Israel that had been planned would happen. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations.
In a fiery speech Sunday evening marking Israel’s Holocaust memorial day, Netanyahu rejected international pressure to halt the war, saying that “if Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone.”
On Monday, Netanyahu accused Hamas of “torpedoing” a deal by not budging from its demand for an end to the war and a complete Israeli troop withdrawal in return for the hostages’ release, which he called “extreme.”
Information from The Associated Press, Reuters, and Newsmax’s Eric Mack contributed to this report.
A.F. Branco Cartoon – Hennepin County Board candidate and current Minnesota Rep. Heather Edelson is co-sponsoring legislation that would ban the sale of gas-powered lawn and gardening tools in Minnesota.
Hennepin County candidate is co-author of bill banning sale of gas-powered lawn mowers
By Luke Sprinkel
Hennepin County Board candidate and current Minnesota Rep. Heather Edelson is co-sponsoring legislation that would ban the sale of gas-powered lawn and gardening tools in Minnesota.
Currently running in a special election for the District 6 seat on the Hennepin County Board, Edelson faces conservative newcomer Marisa Simonetti. Serving in her third-term as a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives, Edelson signed on as a co-author of HF 1715 in the early days of Minnesota’s 93rd Legislative Session. Under that proposed law, the sale of new gas-powered lawn mowers, leaf blowers, hedge clippers, chainsaws, and other “law and garden equipment” would be banned in Minnesota on and after Jan. 1, 2025. READ MORE…
A.F. Branco Cartoon – Universities across the nation are facing a meltdown due to the Marxist rot they are injecting into young students’ minds to the point kids are now advocating for Hamas’ terrorism against Jews in the form of violent protests and occupation of campuses. This seems to be having a negative effect on the democrat party and Biden’s poll numbers.
Watch: Dr. Phil Rips ‘Liberal Woke’ Universities for Fostering Anti-Semitism, ‘Intellectual Rot’
By Ken Kew – The Western Journal
Dr. Phil has launched a full frontal attack on America’s “liberal woke” universities.
The popular television host, whose full name is Phil McGraw, said in a video message this week that he was appalled by the “sickening smugness” displayed by leaders of elite universities they were testifying on Capitol Hill about the issue of campus anti-Semitism. McGraw declared that these prestigious institutions have become “liberal woke hotbeds fostering intellectual rot rather than critical thinking.” READ MORE…
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
A.F. Branco Cartoon – The “Death to America” crowd will most likely vote for Biden since they have similar anti-American views, and he’s willing to forgive their student loans.
BREAKING: Biden Regime is Considering Flooding US with ‘Refugees’ From Gaza
By Cristina Laila – April 30, 2024
Here we go…. The Biden Regime is considering ‘welcoming’ so-called ‘refugees’ from Gaza into the United States. According to internal federal documents obtained by CBS News, the Biden Regime is considering resettling Palestinians who have family members in the US. Egypt doesn’t even want to take in refugees from Gaza!
The US will work with Egypt to resettle Palestinian refugees who have escaped there. READ MORE…
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
President Joe Biden has a message for the 133 hostages held by the monsters of Hamas: He will not rest until they are “back in the arms of their loved ones.”
“They have my word. Their families have my word,” Biden pledged Saturday on the POTUS X account before heading to a posh, black-tie White House Correspondents’ Dinner to rub elbows with the corporate media sycophants who have been carrying water for him.
I will not rest until every hostage, like Abigail, ripped from their families and held by Hamas is back in the arms of their loved ones.
Such a vow from the vaguely alert octogenarian known for being full of crap must have been comforting to the families of the people who have spent the better part of the past seven months in an unimaginable hell while the Biden administration has been sweet-talking the same people who want to wipe out Israel and annihilate Jews.
Biden tirelessly avoided any talk of the political headaches of hostages and Israel’s right to exist during the annual fete of self-important politicians, journalists, and celebrities at the Washington Hilton. Reportedly on the menu, Terrine of Jumbo Lump Crabmeat as an appetizer, an entree of Smoked Paprika Rubbed Filet with Foraged Wild Mushroom Ragout and Pancetta & Gala Apple Demi, washed down with some very fine Chateau Ste. Michelle, Chardonnay, and Cabernet Sauvignon. Safe to say the menu for Hamas’ captives was not nearly as epicurean.
But pretending to think about hostages works up a man-sized, elitist appetite.
“And let there be laughter. I hope for lots of side-splitting, light the internet on fire laughter,” Kelly O’Donnell, NBC senior White House correspondent and president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, insipidly said in her opening remarks.
But not a word about the goings on in Gaza and Israel from Biden or the assemblage of narcissists, to the chagrin of the hundreds of Hamas sympathizers protesting outside the high-priced Hilton.
“Shame on you!” shouted the protesters adorned in the traditional Palestinian keffiyeh, the Associated Press reported. Their renunciations, like those of the professional protesters at Columbia and other college campuses, were reserved for Israel, the United States, and anybody who dares do business with them.
It was tough all over. Some of the correspondents’ dinner guests had to “hurry through hundreds of protesters outraged over the mounting humanitarian disaster for Palestinian civilians in Gaza,” in the AP’s telling. The self-loathing reporters forced to cover the glitzy affair couldn’t help but make the story about the protesters and the poor Palestinians, most of whom have been cheerleaders for the genocidal “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free” campaign.
‘Take This Serious’
Biden could muster all of 10 minutes in his stand-up routine, and much of that was to knock the political opponent he’s trying to imprison. The dinner is designed to be a good-natured roast, but Biden’s speech took a grim turn as he warned of the kind of horror only Democrats and the reporters assembled at the Washington Hilton could invent: a J6 apocalyptic future under another Donald Trump presidency. The room of accomplice media members surely shuddered thinking about the hellscape that life under Trump would unleash — like a booming economy, low inflation, a safer world, and a closed U.S. border.
“We have to take this serious — eight years ago we could have written it off as ‘Trump talk’ but not after Jan. 6,” Biden told the attendees with a straight face. Know this, White House correspondents and esteemed corporate media reporters: Biden will never rest until every one of those Jan. 6 grandmother rebels, Capitol sightseers, and the Republican presidential candidate leading the current White House occupant rot in prison.
Colin Jost, after comparing his late grandfather to Biden, closes by saying his grandfather voted for Joe in 2020 "because you're a decent man" and "my grandpa voted for decency and decency is why we're all here tonight."
Trump did not attend the dinner. That might have something to do with the fact that he’s been forced to defend himself in a Democrat-led banana republic while trying to find time to campaign for president. But as AP pointed out, Trump never attended the smorgasbord of smugness during his presidency.
“In 2011, he sat in the audience, and glowered through a roasting by then-President Barack Obama of Trump’s reality-television celebrity status. Obama’s sarcasm then was so scalding that many political watchers linked it to Trump’s subsequent decision to run for president in 2016,” the story asserts as if communicating facts. We all know the No. 1 reason presidential campaigns launch is out of spite. Franklin Pierce jumped in the 1852 race after Whig Millard Fillmore dogged the Democrat about his raging alcoholism. Hell hath no fury like a Jacksonian Democrat scorned by “scalding sarcasm.”
Biden did spend time on Sunday telling Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu how to run Israel’s war on terror. You’ll recall how much the United States appreciated similar meddling by other nations after 9/11. According to The Times of Israel, Biden spoke to Netanyahu about his joint statement with the leaders of 17 other nations calling on Hamas to immediately release the remaining hostages it is holding in Gaza amid the human shield Palestinians. Israel would grant a ceasefire if the hostages are released. And that’s what an unpopular American president drowning in bad polls really wants: a ceasefire. The release of the hostages is a means to his political ends, which is to get two critical contingencies — Muslims and Jews — off his back.
And the hostages and their families can rest assured, tough-talking Joe Biden won’t rest until he secures freedom for his political aims. *Not including his daily rests and swanky dinners.
Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.
Students at the University of Washington postponed an anti-Israel demonstration planned for Thursday because too many of the students who signed up are white.
According to MyNorthwest, a Washington-based radio station, the University of Washington’s Progressive Student Union (UWPSU) opted to delay an encampment in solidarity with Palestinian terrorists “to make sure this encampment is a better reflection of the UW community, and having even greater unity with Muslim, Palestinian and Arab students.”
“We want to be part of a much larger coalition of groups and make no mistake, WE WILL HAVE A UW ENCAMPMENT! We want to make sure everyone’s voice is included and this action is as safe, secure, and strong as possible,” read a statement from the far-left student union published by MyNorthwest.
BREAKING: Activists with the UW Progressive Student Union said they're postponing the “UW Palestine encampment” because there were too many white students involved. The group received criticism for not including Muslim and Arab students in the organizing.https://t.co/Do5KBLbFM2
— Jason Rantz on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) April 25, 2024
The protest at the University of Washington would have placed the school on the map of more than 40 college campuses where pro-Palestine demonstrations have brought havoc to institutions from coast to coast. These anti-Israel encampments have been reported from Harvard and Yale to Stanford and the University of Southern California (USC), driving a nationwide rise in anti-Jewish hate. According to the Associated Press, students taking over college campuses are broadly demanding schools halt business with Israel or any other groups supporting the Israeli effort to eliminate Iranian-backed terrorists in the Middle East.
Demonstrations spread from Columbia University, where students began to protest last week as school leaders testified about antisemitism on Capitol Hill. The Ivy League school canceled in-person classes Monday and notified students that classes would be hybrid for the rest of the semester due to ongoing demonstrations. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson visited the university this week to shift attention away from his embarrassing failure to secure any new border fortification amid negotiations that ended with sending more money to Ukraine.
At USC, officials announced the university will cancel the school’s primary graduation ceremony after dozens were arrested in protests Thursday. Other universities may follow suit while some, such as the University of Michigan, are tightening restrictions on prohibited items, including flags and banners.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) sent a letter to college and university presidents earlier this month to “urge you to take clear, decisive action now to ensure that graduation ceremonies, events, and functions run smoothly, and that all students and their families feel safe, welcomed and celebrated.”
“As leaders in the Jewish community, we ask that you take your role seriously in making sure that Jewish students — and all students — are not robbed of a positive, memorable lifecycle event,” said the ADL.
Meanwhile, schools where demonstrations are taking place are facing financial consequences for their failure to crack down on the encampment protests. Billionaire Columbia University alum Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots, said he would stop contributing to his alma mater, and Leon Cooperman, another alum, also pledged to continue a halt in donations shortly after the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel. According to The New York Post, other billionaire donors are considering a similar pause on university contributions. With high-dollar contributors pulling back from schools, having too few white students involved in pro-terrorist protests should be the least of their worries.
Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist and the author of Social Justice Redux, a conservative newsletter on culture, health, and wellness. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at Tristan@thefederalist.com. Sign up for Tristan’s email newsletter here.
Hamas on Wednesday released a propaganda video showing Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who has not been seen since he was kidnapped during the terrorist group’s attacks on Israel on Oct. 7. Goldberg-Polin, 23, identified himself as an Israeli in the video and commented he had been held hostage for “nearly 200 days,” an indication the video was recorded recently, according to The Times of Israel. The video, which runs almost three minutes long, shows Goldberg-Polin asking the Israeli government to bring the hostages home.
The young man is missing his left arm from the elbow down. He lost his limb when Hamas terrorists attacked the Supernova rave in the Negev desert in the early hours of Oct. 7. Video from the onslaught showed Goldberg-Polin’s arm was blown off when Hamas terrorists threw hand grenades into a shelter where he and others tried to hide.
Media outlets in Israel do not show hostage videos, saying they are an act of psychological warfare, according to the New York Post.
Goldberg-Polin was at the music festival with a friend and was shown on video being loaded onto a truck, with his left arm mangled from the explosion.
A media representative for Goldberg-Polin’s parents, Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin, declined to speak with the press after the video of their son was released.
The video comes a few days after his family had made an impassioned plea begging he be released in time for the start of Passover.
“All of the symbolic things we do at the Seder will take on a much more profound and deep meaning this year,” Goldberg told reporters.
She said the family was planning to hold their Seder, but said “if 15 minutes in, we just can’t do it, and we need to cry, then we will cry.”
Goldberg and Polin spoke with the Post earlier this month when six months had passed since their son and 250 other hostages were taken.
“At a certain point, we did realize that hope is mandatory, optimism is mandatory,” Goldberg said. “We’re trying to save our son’s life, we’re trying to help save the lives of all of the hostages who are still alive.”
Our universities melting down seems to be part of the Democrats’ Cloward and Piven strategy of destroying the capitalist system in order to rebuild it into a utopia resembling that of the former Soviet Union or Communist China, throwing away our constitution with all power and control resting with a few wealthy elitists in the Democrat party.
Chaos at Columbia: Anti-Zionist NYC College Protest Gets Physical Last Night, “Arrest that Zionist piece of s***” (VIDEO)
By Benjamin Wetmore – April 19, 2024
Protests at Columbia University in New York City got heated Thursday night as protesters demanded charges be dropped against pro-Palestinian activists who were shutting down the college’s buildings to protest Israel’s war in Gaza. The protesters were upset that the police arrested those making a ‘tent city’ inside the college’s buildings and on campus grounds. 108 were arrested after three days of protests. The protesters wanted those arrested released without charges. READ MORE…
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) would not say Tuesday whether it is investigating people identifying themselves as part of a foreign terrorist organization heard chanting “We are Hamas” outside U.S. universities including Columbia.
Video footage shows masked Islamists taunting Jewish students outside of President Barack Obama’s alma mater. One woman shouted at a pro-Israel activist, “We are Hamas” while standing outside Columbia University. “We’re all Hamas.”
Another man who covered his face was seen on video promising more mass slaughter, rape, and kidnapping: “Remember the 7th of October! That will happen not one more time, not five more times, to 10 more times, not 100 more times, not 1,000 more times, but 10,000 times!”
"Never forget the 7th of October. That will happen not one more time, not five more times, not 10…100…1000…10,000…The 7th of October is going to be every day for you."
“Never forget the 7th of October,” another unidentifiable man donning the Palestinian flag outside the university screams in a video recording. “Are you ready? Seventh of October is about to be every day. Every day. Seventh of October is going to be every day for you.”
The Federalist asked the FBI whether they would investigate the self-proclaimed terrorists.
“Thank you for your inquiry. However, we decline comment on this matter,” the bureau replied.
The FBI designates Hamas as a terrorist organization.
Perhaps the FBI’s unwillingness to let the American people know it’s monitoring self-proclaimed terrorists is because the agency allegedly trained some of its personnel using material that “ranked people who oppose abortion, pro-life activists, as a greater threat than Islamists,” as former special agent Steve Friend told the Tennessee Informer.
Friend said he received the training material in 2014 but was unsure whether the agency still used it. The materials, he said, were produced by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a hate group whose materials inspired a gunman to shoot up the offices of a conservative DC organization in 2012, and another gunman to attempt to murder a member of Congress in 2017.
As of 2023, the FBI still uses some SPLC materials. SPLC responded to the October 7 terrorist attack in Israel by claiming that, while “all acts of hate violence” are wrong, Israel targets Palestinian civilians. That is a Hamas propaganda refrain.
The FBI also cited SPLC in a 2023 document targeting traditional Christians for opposing abortion and holding orthodox views about the sexes. It labeled them “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists” and even suggested cultivating FBI informants within local churches.
The FBI has also smeared Americans who support former President Donald Trump as potential terrorists by including them in their “domestic extremism” definition, a 2023 report from Newsweek found. Newsweek found “nearly two-thirds of the FBI’s current investigations” focus on Trump supporters who allegedly disregarded “anti-riot” laws.
After Jan. 6, 2021, the agency also expanded its “anti-government or anti-authority violent extremists-other” classification so it could monitor anyone who disagrees with any government action. A 2021 inspector general report found that several FBI officials lied to cover up agency errors and dinged the agency for its systemic lack of rapid investigation of later convicted child sex abuser Larry Nassar.
Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist.
A lot of congressional Republicans see a political slam dunk in thrusting their focus into the thick of anti-Israel protests raging at Ivy League campuses across the country, but to the protesters, there’s only one thing to say: This is what disappointment feels like. Get used to it.
Participants in the protests are demanding a range of things, from a simple “cease fire” in Gaza to something resembling more of what you might call a “final solution” in Israel. Republicans and Fox News are taking a special interest in the affair because of course all of the protesters are Democrat voters, and some of them are proudly allowing their anti-Jew flag to fly.
That makes things a little uncomfortable for the White House and Democrats in Congress, but so far, Joe Biden and Co. are managing to tolerate it. That’s because, with a giddy assist from Republicans, Democrats are within a baby’s breath of passing a nearly $100 billion foreign welfare package, about a quarter of which will go to Israel to continue its war campaign. Included in that portion is some “humanitarian aid” for Palestinians. (Enjoy!)
What’s not included in that handsome giveaway is anything of note that would directly improve the life of a single American on U.S. soil. There was nothing related to the collapse of the Southern border, nothing to address crime, and nothing to bring down the cost of groceries or the price of gas.
So, the anti-Israel faction of the Democrat Party feels put out by Washington? Don’t we all.
What they all need to understand is that the leaders they elected don’t care. Elected Democrats don’t share their interests. Likewise, elected Republicans just showed their priorities aren’t in sync with the desires of their voters, either.
I know it stings. Nobody likes rejection. But here we all are, as far corners of the world are taken care of by our tax dollars amid massive federal deficits and debt. Everyone here is fine, right?
Ultimately, what the protesters want is stupid anyway. After what happened on Oct. 7, Israel isn’t going to relent until it’s ready, just as any proud nation would do. That’s not to say Israelis should wage their battle at our expense, but that wasn’t my call. It was Washington’s. And Washington cares just as much about the preferences of anti-Israel activists as they do every other average American’s.
Get comfortable. Things aren’t going to change for a while.
A.F. Branco Cartoon – Democrats in the Minnesota House of Representatives voted down an amendment that would have banned so-called “Zuckerbucks” from Minnesota elections. In Minnesota, many county election departments across the state received “Zuckerbucks” in the form of grants.
Democrats vote down amendment to ban ‘Zuckerbucks’ from Minnesota elections
By Luke Sprinkel – April 10, 2024
Democrats in the Minnesota House of Representatives voted down an amendment that would have banned so-called “Zuckerbucks” from Minnesota elections.
In 2020, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, and his wife donated $250 million to a nonprofit called the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL). CTCL proceeded to hand out those millions of dollars to election departments across the country in the form of grants… CTCL’s grants went to these jurisdictions for the purpose of providing additional election administration funding during the COVID-19 pandemic. Local election departments used the grants during the 2020 election to pay for supplies, staffing, COVID-related “personal protection equipment,” and other expenses. READ MORE
A.F. Branco Cartoon – The LGBTQ community boasts support for Palestine, who ruthlessly murdered over 1000 innocent Jews in Israel. Obviously, they’re clueless to the fact they would be killed if in Gaza for their lifestyles.
Rutgers Professor Claims it is ‘Homophobic’ to Point Out How Hamas Brutalizes LGBTQ People
By Margaret Flavin – April 6, 2024
Maya Mikdashi, an Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and a lecturer in the Program for Middle East Studies at Rutgers University, participated in a recent discussion where she claims accurately describing Hamas’ brutalization of LGBTQ Palestinians should be labeled “homophobic violence.”
Mikdashi participated in a discussion titled “Palestine is a Feminist and Queer Anti-Imperialist Abolition Struggle,” where she pushed back on the complaint that Palestinians and Hamas mistreat LGBTQ citizens. READ MORE…
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Tuesday there was no evidence Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians during the Hamas war in Gaza. Austin, appearing with Defense Comptroller Mike McCord and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. CQ Brown, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee to discuss the president’s 2025 budget request for the Pentagon.
Pro-Palestinian protesters interrupted Austin several times while the secretary was reading his opening statement. During questioning, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., asked Austin whether Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
“We don’t have any evidence of genocide being [committed],” said Austin, before Cotton repeated his question.
“We don’t have evidence of that to my knowledge,” Austin replied.
Cotton commended Austin for his answer, saying he was “better than [CIA] Director [William] Burns and [National Intelligence] Director [Avril] Haines did … last month at the Intelligence Committee when they dodged that question.”
Cotton then said Austin has been accused of “greenlighting genocide” and asked the secretary whether he wanted to respond to such accusations.
“What I would say, Sen. Cotton, from the very beginning, we committed to help assist Israel in defending its territory and its people by providing security assistance,” Austin said, “and I would remind everybody that what happened on Oct. 7 was absolutely horrible.
“Numbers of Israeli citizens killed, and then a couple of hundred Israeli citizens taken hostage … American citizens as well.”
“So you deny the accusation that you greenlit genocide,” Cotton asked.
“I absolutely deny it,” Austin said.
The Senate hearing was the first-time lawmakers on both sides were able to question the Pentagon’s top civilian and military leadership on the administration’s Israel strategy following Tel Aviv’s deadly strike on World Central Kitchen humanitarian aid workers in Gaza.
The World Central Kitchen strike led to a shift in tone from President Joe Biden on how Israel must protect civilian life in Gaza and drove dozens of House Democrats, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to call on Biden to halt weapons transfers to Israel.
American student anti-Israeli protesters need to reflect on their attitude toward Israel and the Jews. The slogan “from the river to the sea” is basically calling for the extermination of Jews. They seem to have more sympathy toward the terrorist organization that murdered 1400 innocent men, women, and children than they do for the victims.
Berkeley: Anti-Israel Protesters Call Jews “Zionist Pigs,” Heckle Holocaust Survivor and Chant “From the River to the Sea” at City Council Meeting (VIDEO)
By Jim Hoft – March 29, 2024
Radical pro-Palestinian protesters heckled Holocaust survivor Susanne DeWitt, an 89-year-old Holocaust survivor and called Jews “Zionist Pigs” during a City Council meeting in Berkeley, California this week. The Jew-haters also chanted “from the river to the sea” a famous expression in support of the extermination of Jews in Israel during the meeting.
Susanne DeWitt was speaking in favor of Berkeley’s Holocaust Remembrance Day when the protesters continued to disrupt her and would not let her finish.
The mob action was captured by The Jewish Community Relations Council. READ MORE…
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
A push by President Joe Biden’s administration for a two-state solution is falling on deaf ears because Israel is winning the war against Hamas and could end it in less than a month, retired Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt said Monday on Newsmax.
“The Israelis are winning this war right now,” Holt said on “Wake Up America.” “Even Egypt is backing off. And when you’re winning a war, you don’t tend to look at your ally and say, ‘Oh, we’ll stop fighting now.’ They’re going to victory, and then they’re going on their way to Hezbollah.”
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) rejected the latest Hamas calls for a cease-fire as it prepares for a final invasion of Rafah, giving the terrorists until March 10 to release the remaining hostages, which are estimated to be in the range of 100 that have yet to be confirmed dead.
“I think what the March 10 thing looks like is: We’re going to continue to prepare the battle space and take care of as many civilians as we possibly can in advance of March 10; we’ll get people diverted, replace them as we prepare for this onslaught, because this is the final push,” Holt said of the Israel position.
“This is no more than the IDF just saying we’re going to take care of civilians, and while we do, you should reconsider your position on the hostages.”
Israel has long condemned Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack and taking of hostages as human shields to use as leverage for its long-sought statehood, brought on by acts of barbaric terrorism.
“I’m not certain if Hamas has any ability whatsoever to do a thing about the hostages, whether they have control over them, whether they’re alive, and what that means, because the International Red Cross and other groups have not produced one ounce of proof of life,” Holt said. “But I think March 10 militarily means we’re going to close the curtain on this chapter of this war.”
Holt said Israel and world leaders have little fear in telling the Biden administration to stay out of their war decisions.
“Openly and on the world stage, you’ve got states now telling the United States and this administration in particular: ‘You’re not going to bully us; you’re not going to – just because you have a political problem at home with your own elections doesn’t mean you get to inflict political damage here in our country where we’ve endured horrific, barbaric attacks that are unprecedented in the modern age and that we would somehow reward the Palestinians’ – who three times by the way rejected a two-state solution, because they want a one-state solution where Israel is driven into the sea, in their words only,” Holt said.
“The administration, its academics, it’s nonpractitioners – it’s folks who know zero about warfare and geopolitics – are looking at polls here domestically with the Arab populations that they have lost for voters.
“They’ve certainly lost a lot of the Jewish vote, and they’re looking at how to fix it. And they want to fix it on the backs of [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and the Israelis, and it’s quite sick.”
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President Joe Biden’s policies arguably strengthened Iran’s proxies in the Middle East, including the Houthi rebels in Yemen. Pictured: Thousands of Houthi supporters, holding Yemeni and Palestinian flags, gather Feb. 9 at Sebin Square to stage a solidarity demonstration with Palestinians and protest in Sanaa, Yemen, against Israel’s efforts to eradicate the Hamas terrorist group in the Gaza Strip. (Photo: Mohammed Hamoud/Anadolu/Getty Images)
Not only has the president empowered Iran by relaxing former President Donald Trump’s sanctions on the world’s top state sponsor of terrorism, but he has also empowered Iran’s proxies through various geopolitical moves that make war more likely. Biden is not alone; previous administrations have directed funds to ostensible U.S. allies in the region, funds that likely contribute to the proxies’ forces.
Biden’s relaxation of Trump-era sanctions netted Tehran at least $77 billion, some of which Iran directs to proxies across the region. Yet the president’s other policies also emboldened Iran’s proxies, who have attacked Israel, U.S. forces, and global shipping since the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel.
“We have enabled and fed our enemies and constricted our friends,” Rob Greenway, director of The Heritage Foundation’s Center for National Defense, told The Daily Signal. (The Daily Signal is Heritage’s news outlet.)
Greenway, who orchestrated Trump’s sanctions against Tehran, warned that Biden’s policies have “strategically appeased Iran.”
Benham Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow focused on Iran at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, told The Daily Signal that Iran has propped up proxies that represent “a state within a state,” exploiting instability in Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen to “benefit from the largesse of U.S. policy.”
Taleblu notes that this poses a “philosophical problem” for America, which funds Iraq and Lebanon, even though it cannot prevent those governments from funneling that money to Iran’s proxies in their countries. Iran excels at “indigenizing the capabilities” of its allies by partnering with groups that have already arisen in another country.
Neither the White House nor the State Department provided comments for this article.
1. The Houthis
The Iran-backed Houthi movement, a Shiite militant group in Yemen, adopted the slogan “God is the greatest, death to America, death to Israel, a curse upon the Jews, victory to Islam.” The Houthis took control of Sanaa, Yemen’s capital city, in 2014, pushing the country’s then-president, Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, to the east. Hadi and his successor, Rashad Muhammad al-Alimi, enjoy support from the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.
During the Trump administration, the U.S. provided billions of dollars worth of arms to the Saudi-led coalition against the Houthis in Yemen. Trump vetoed a bill to block this funding in 2019. Trump’s secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, designated the Houthis a terrorist group in 2021.
Under Biden, however, Secretary of State Antony Blinken reversed the terrorist designation in a move the administration framed as intended to “alleviate or at least not worsen the suffering of the Yemeni civilians who live under Houthi control.”
In February 2021, Biden announced: “We are ending all American support for offensive operations in the war in Yemen, including relevant arms sales.”
The Houthis have repeatedly fired on international commercial shipping since mid-November, mostly targeting vessels with commercial ties to the U.S., Britain, or Israel. These attacks have prompted many companies to reroute ships to avoid the Red Sea, which offers a quicker, more direct route for global trade; the companies take the longer, more expensive route around Africa.
Since Jan. 11, U.S. and British planes have carried out retaliatory strikes across Yemen to respond to the Houthi attacks.
Greenway, the Heritage expert, warned that “Yemen aid is also invariably being diverted to the Houthis.”
He said the terrorists “create the humanitarian crisis, demand aid, and divert aid,” in a vicious spiral.
Last month, the Biden administration moved to redesignate the Houthis as a terrorist group, though it stopped short of the harsher designation Pompeo had used. Trump’s secretary of state had put the Houthis on the Foreign Terrorist Organization list, which bars members’ entry into the U.S. and enables the freezing of any Houthi assets in the U.S., among other things.
Blinken, by contrast, announced on Jan. 17 that the State Department would consider the Houthis a “specially designated global terrorist group” after a 30-day delay in which the U.S. would try to facilitate “humanitarian assistance” to Yemenis.
Edem Wosornu, the United Nations’ aid operations director, warned Wednesday against designating the Houthis as a terrorist group, saying the move may harm “Yemen’s already fragile economy.”
Rich Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies who previously directed a Trump White House program to counter Iran’s development of nuclear weapons, called Blinken’s forthcoming sanctions on the Houthis “toothless,” noting that they include “five broad general exemptions.”
Goldberg mentioned Saudi Arabia’s truce with Iran last year, which he said involved the Saudis “basically buying off the Houthis and the Iranians in exchange for the Houthis stopping drone strikes.”
Goldberg told The Daily Signal that the Biden administration sent Saudi Arabia many signals that it wouldn’t back Riyadh when facing Iran’s provocations.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman “decided there is no U.S. support, the U.S. is pumping money into threats attacking Saudi Arabia, so they need to cut their own deal with the Iranians to protect themselves,” Goldberg said.
The Saudis are pouring an “unknown amount” of money into Yemen, he said.
Ben Taleblu, the other senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, warned that the Houthis have “some of the most damning” missile capabilities of any Iran proxies. He noted that the Houthis launched the medium-range Burkan-3 ballistic missile for the first time in 2019.
2. UNRWA and Hamas
Biden restored funding that may have directly contributed to the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks, when Hamas terrorists brutally massacred at least 1,200 Israelis, including raping women and murdering babies, and taking hundreds hostage.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East portrays itself as an aid organization, but the Israel Defense Forces provided evidence that 12 UNRWA employees took part in the Oct. 7 massacre. The U.S., Germany, Britain, and seven other countries cut off UNRWA aid after the revelations surfaced late last month.
Israel revealed Sunday that Hamas operated a tunnel right underneath UNRWA’s headquarters in Gaza City. UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini insisted that the U.N. agency “did not know what is under its headquarters.” He said the agency left its headquarters Oct. 12, five days after Hamas’ terrorist attacks in Israel.
In 2014, however, part of the parking lot at the UNRWA headquarters began to sink, likely because of a Hamas tunnel underneath, The Wall Street Journal reported.
“No one talked about what was causing the collapse,” a former UNRWA official said, according to the Journal. “But everyone knew.”
U.N. Watch’s Hillel Neuer revealed what he claimed to be a chat group with 3,000 UNRWA teachers celebrating the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel. Neuer testified that U.N. leaders “could not possibly have been shocked that UNRWA employees are implicated in terrorism,” because his organization sent them reports in 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2021.
In 2018, the State Department under Trump announced that the U.S. would stop contributing to UNRWA, noting that the U.S. had shouldered a “very disproportionate share” of the burden and criticizing the U.N. relief agency’s “business model and fiscal practices” as “simply unsustainable.”
In 2021, the Biden administration announced plans to provide $235 million to UNRWA, restoring part of the approximately $360 million that the U.N. agency would have expected if the U.S. had not cut off funding in 2018.
It remains unclear how much of this money went to Hamas or to UNRWA employees who may have helped Hamas on Oct. 7.
“Hezbollah is a threat 10 times larger than Hamas, with long-range capabilities, precision-guided munitions, [unmanned aerial vehicles], and the ability to inflict far more damage on Israel than we’ve seen Hamas do even on Oct. 7,” Goldberg, the senior adviser at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, told The Daily Signal.
Hezbollah started a war on July 12, 2006, when militants captured two members of an Israel Defense Forces patrol inside Israel and killed the other three. Hezbollah launched rockets into Israel as a diversion. After Israel responded with rockets, a ground invasion, and a blockade, the United Nations negotiated a cease-fire.
The United Nations approved, and both Israel and Lebanon agreed to, U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which, among other things, requires Hezbollah to disarm and withdraw its forces north of the Litani River. That river is about 19 miles north of Israel’s border with Lebanon.
The U.S. has spent billions of dollars over decades funding both the Lebanese Armed Forces and the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, a “temporary” U.N. peacekeeping body established in 1978. Resolution 1701 states that the U.N.’s Lebanon force must disarm Hezbollah south of the Litani River, yet to this day, Hezbollah has armed forces south of that river.
“The return on investment is quite negative for the U.S. taxpayer in Lebanon these last two decades,” Goldberg said. “The threat has metastasized to such a degree that Israel is almost deterred from action in a full-scale attack on Hezbollah, and potentially deterred from action against Iran and its nuclear program.”
According to leaks following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks, Biden warned Israel against launching a preemptive strike against Hezbollah. “Now we see Hezbollah’s ramped up,” Goldberg noted.
Since Oct. 7, Hezbollah has attacked Israeli outposts along the Lebanese border and launched rockets into Israel. The Jewish state has evacuated tens of thousands of civilians from Israeli villages and towns near the border with Lebanon, fearing an Oct. 7-style attack from the north. Israel has demanded that Hezbollah abide by the terms of Resolution 1701.
A Biden envoy, Amos Hochstein, has been negotiating in the region. According to Axios’ Barak Ravid, earlier this month Hochstein presented a peace proposal to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The proposal wouldn’t require Hezbollah to move its forces north of the Litani River but only 5 to 6 miles from the Israeli border, with the Lebanese Armed Forces filling in.
Hezbollah has already moved most of its elite Radwan force north of this line. Israel would have to pull forces away from the border and move its jets out of Lebanese airspace. Western powers also would send money to Lebanon to sweeten the deal for Hezbollah.
Goldberg denounced the plan as a “bag of magic beans.” He noted that the plan doesn’t explain how fighters who live in southern Lebanese towns would be forced to leave, or how Israel could verify that missiles had been moved from under schools, homes, and hospitals in southern Lebanon.
“Who would ensure Hezbollah can’t come in to attack Israel?” Goldberg asked. “It will be the LAF and UNIFIL. That’s ludicrous after 17 years of teaching us that they will not do anything to stop Hezbollah.”
He was referring to the Lebanese Armed Forces and the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon.
Hezbollah has “taken effective political control of the country,” so the LAF does not represent any sort of check on Hezbollah, Goldberg said.
“In exchange for giving Israel no sense of security, there reportedly will also be a massive bailout of the Lebanese economy, and an Israeli commitment to negotiate giving up territory on the Lebanese border,” he said. “It’s completely insane.”
Israel needs the ability “to give residents of evacuated communities enough confidence to return to their homes” and to “prevent an Oct. 7-type invasion,” Goldberg argued, and this proposed deal doesn’t come close to meeting those goals.
The U.S. has generously funded the Lebanese army for years, with a slight, unexplained pause during the Trump administration.
“A lot of the money we give to the government of Lebanon goes to Hezbollah,” warned Greenway, director of Heritage’s Center for National Defense.
Goldberg noted that Congress knew the UNIFIL funding wasn’t deterring Hezbollah and yet continued to approve it, anyway.
“Going back to 2007, every year members of Congress wrote letters about the enforcement of [Resolution] 1701,” Goldberg said, specifying that many lawmakers demanded answers from the administrations of George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Trump, and Biden. “It has been a bipartisan failure for years.”
Goldberg noted that the Trump administration attempted to “start enforcing congressionally mandated Hezbollah sanctions” and that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and the Justice Department reopened investigations into the terrorist group that were closed during the Obama administration.
“You haven’t heard anything on cracking down on Hezbollah since Joe Biden took office,” Goldberg said.
Hezbollah released videos in July 2023 showing how the terrorist group prepared for a multipoint invasion to kill and capture Israelis in Israel, Goldberg noted, adding that these videos “look like Oct. 7, only they’re set in Northern Israel, not on the Gaza border.”
“Hamas executed a plan that Hezbollah created,” he said.
4. Iran-Backed Militias in Iraq
The U.S. launched airstrikes on Feb. 2 targeting al Hashd al Shabi, an Iran-linked militia and part of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, following a Jan. 28 drone attack on the military base Tower 22 in Jordan that killed three American service members.
Heritage’s Greenway explained that the government of Iraq “owns” the Popular Mobilization Forces, but Iran effectively controls them. The U.S. has supplied $10 billion or more each year to Baghdad on semimonthly cargo flights carrying massive pallets of cash, drawn from Iraqi oil sales proceeds deposited at the Federal Reserve, The Wall Street Journal reported. It remains unclear how much of this money goes to Iran-backed militias.
Greenway warned that the Popular Mobilization Forces—an umbrella organization of about 67 diverse militias—are often “bigger than the army, and most groups are under Iran specifically and are designated terrorist groups.”
He also argued that when the U.S. allows Iraq to send money to Iran in exchange for natural gas, these electricity payments constitute a form of money laundering. (The State Department in November extended a waiver allowing Iran to sell electricity to Iraq and use the money to purchase goods overseas.)
As of 2022, Iraq was the world’s fifth-largest oil producer, producing 4.61 million barrels per day, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Yet Iraq imports electricity from its eastern neighbor.
“A major oil producer importing electricity? It’s the stupidest thing in the world,” Greenway previously told The Daily Signal. “Iraq deliberately decides they need electricity and it won’t bring in countries to improve its electric grid.”
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella term for pro-Iran Shiite Islamist insurgents in Iraq, claimed responsibility for the Jan. 28 attack on the military base. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq is an ally of the Popular Mobilization Forces.
Taleblu, the expert at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, explained that the Iran-backed militias in Iraq started the Islamic Resistance in Iraq as an “umbrella group designed to further hinder attribution” for attacks.
When Islamic Resistance in Iraq takes responsibility for attacks like the one Jan. 28, it prevents the U.S. and allies from identifying which specific militia carried out the attack, Taleblu said. He described the resistance group as a “proxy for the proxies” of Iran.
For his part, Goldberg noted that the Trump administration attempted to start “squeezing Baghdad to stop financing these militias using U.S. cash.” But its efforts largely failed, he said, due to opposition from within the Defense Department, which sees the militias as allies against the Islamic State terrorist group.
Biden’s Vision for Iran
Why does Biden seem intent on helping Iran? Goldberg attributed the Biden administration’s policy to a balance-of-powers mentality that sees U.S. intervention as the major threat to Middle East peace.
“There is a worldview that in order to create an equilibrium in the Middle East that avoids conflict, you have to empower Iran to be an equal of the Sunnis and Israel,” he said. “Once they have a mutually assured destruction going on, the U.S. can pull out of the Middle East.”
“It’s a completely extremist, nonserious, ideologically fringe worldview, driven by the belief that the Islamic Republic of Iran is not an enemy but an enemy we have created,” Goldberg said.
If Biden wants to avoid a wider war in the Middle East, he needs to take action to deter Iran’s proxies. Unfortunately, the president’s policies seem to have done the opposite so far, perhaps even by design.
President Joe Biden’s political rhetoric aimed at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues, but it also is failing to move Israel on ceasing its war on Hamas in Gaza. Despite being an ally locked in war, Biden has been reportedly unkind to his Israeli counterpart, calling Netanyahu an “a**hole” behind closed doors — all while claiming publicly he close, sources told NBC News.
A week after reports saying Biden privately considers Netanyahu a “bad f**king guy,” sources say Netanyahu is “giving him hell.” Late last week, Biden denounced the Israeli war operations in Gaza as “over the top.”
Notably, there has been no reports of Biden cursing out Hamas terrorists or the world’s No. 1 state sponsor of terror Iran, anonymously or otherwise.
This all comes as the Biden administration continues to press a two-state solution, giving Gaza a Palestinian state after the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel, while Netanyahu has continued to press forward, vowing “total victory” over Hamas.
Netanyahu is Biden’s “primary obstacle” to keeping Israel from the prime minister’s secondary war objective of eradicating Hamas, officials told NBC.
But, since Israel’s war on Hamas began, Netanyahu has been steadfast in achieving three objectives:
Return all of the 250 hostages taken by Hamas terrorists as human shields and leverage for a Palestinian state, as Israeli officials told Newsmax
Eradicate the Hamas terrorist network and leadership, including worldwide
Demilitarize and deradicalize the anti-Israeli Palestinian population in Gaza
Only after those three objectives are met can there be peace in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, according to Netanyahu, who is also called “Bibi.”
But Biden remains undaunted on Israel’s war objectives, instead facing pressure in the U.S. to get nearly $10 billion in funding for Gaza and far-left agitators calling for sanctions on Israel for its strikes against Hamas.
“He did say, ‘Bibi started off great, but he’s been a pain in my ass lately’ or ‘he’s been killing me lately’ — one of those things,” a source told NBC News. “He goes, ‘But, he’s doing a disservice … of late.'”
Biden’s inability to stop Israel has been a point of contention in private conversations with two-state advocates and campaign officials, sources told NBC.
“He just feels like this is enough,” one source said. “It has to stop.”
The rejection of the Israeli prime minister over political and policy differences could be construed as anti-Israel, so Biden administration officials have tried to tamp down talk of a personal rift.
“The president has been clear where he disagrees with Prime Minister Netanyahu, but this is a decadeslong relationship that is respectful in public and in private,” a National Security Council spokesman wrote in a statement, according to NBC News.
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
Egyptian officials said on Tuesday they have received Hamas’ response to a framework ceasefire agreement for the Gaza Strip, a statement from Egypt’s State Information Service said.
“We will discuss all the details of the proposed framework with the concerned parties to reach an agreement on the final formula as soon as possible,” Diaa Rashwan, head of the State Information Service, was quoted as saying.
Egyptian security sources told Reuters on Tuesday that Hamas’ response showed flexibility, asking for a specific timeline for the ceasefire to end after the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday in early April.
“Egypt will continue to exert its utmost efforts in order to reach a ceasefire agreement in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip soon,” Rashwan said.
An Israeli airstrike on a home killed 16 people, half of them children, in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, medics said early Thursday. The military continued to strike targets in areas of the besieged territory where it has told civilians to seek refuge.
There was meanwhile no word on whether medicines that entered the territory Wednesday as part of a deal brokered by France and Qatar had been distributed to dozens hostages with chronic illnesses who are being held by Hamas.
🚨 Breaking: Assisted by @UNRWA, Hamas terrorists again take control of aid trucks today before they reach civilians 👇
Civilians in Gaza are starving despite hundreds of aid trucks entering every day. Meanwhile most Hamas terrorists are obese. pic.twitter.com/YKUcCWFxuY
More than 100 days after Hamas triggered the war with its Oct. 7 attack, Israel continues to wage one of the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in recent history, with the goal of dismantling the militant group that has ruled Gaza since 2007 and returning scores of captives. The war has stoked tensions across the region, threatening to ignite other conflicts.
More than 24,000 Palestinians have been killed, some 85% of the narrow coastal territory’s 2.3 million people have fled their homes, and the United Nations says a quarter of the population is starving.
Hundreds of thousands have heeded Israeli evacuation orders and packed into southern Gaza, where shelters run by the United Nations are overflowing and massive tent camps have gone up. But Israel has continued to strike what it says are militant targets in all parts of Gaza, often killing women and children.
Dr. Talat Barhoum at Rafah’s el-Najjar Hospital confirmed the death toll from the strike in Rafah and said dozens more were wounded. Associated Press footage from the hospital showed relatives weeping over the bodies of loved ones.
“They were suffering from hunger, they were dying from hunger, and now they have also been hit,” said Mahmoud Qassim, a relative of some of those who were killed.
Internet and mobile services in Gaza have been down for five days, the longest of several outages during the war, according to internet access advocacy group NetBlocks. The outages complicate rescue efforts and make it difficult to obtain information about the latest strikes and casualties.
The war has rippled across the Middle East, with Iran-backed groups attacking U.S. and Israeli targets. Low-intensity fighting between Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon threatens to erupt into all-out war, and Houthi rebels in Yemen continue to target international shipping despite United States-led airstrikes.
Iran has launched a series of missile attacks targeting what it described as an Israeli spy base in Iraq and militant bases in Syria as well as in Pakistan, which carried out reprisal strikes against what it described as militant hideouts in Iran early Thursday.
It was not clear if the strikes in Syria and Pakistan were related to the Gaza war. But they showcased Iran’s ability to carry out long-range missile attacks at a time of heightened tensions with Israel and the U.S., which has provided crucial support for the Gaza offensive and carried out its own strikes against Iran-allied groups in Syria and Iraq.
Israel has vowed to dismantle Hamas to ensure it can never repeat an attack like the one on Oct. 7. Militants burst through Israel’s border defenses and stormed through several communities that day, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 hostage.
Israel has also vowed to return all the hostages remaining in captivity after more than 100 — mostly women and children — were released during a November cease-fire in exchange for the release of scores of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
Family members and supporters were marking the first birthday of Kfir Bibas, the youngest Israeli hostage, in a somber ceremony Thursday in Tel Aviv.
The red-haired infant and his 4-year-old brother Ariel were captured along with their mother, Shiri, and their father, Yarden. All four remain in captivity.
The agreement to ship in medicines was the first to be brokered between the warring sides since November. Hamas said that for every box of medicine bound for the hostages, 1,000 would be sent for Palestinian civilians, in addition to food and humanitarian aid.
Qatar confirmed late Wednesday that the medicine had entered Gaza, but it was not yet clear if it had been distributed to the hostages, who are being held in secret locations, including underground bunkers.
Hamas has continued to fight back across Gaza, even in the most devastated areas, and launch rockets into Israel. It says it will not release any more hostages until there is a permanent cease-fire, something Israel and the United States, its top ally, have ruled out.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says at least 24,448 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, with over 60,000 wounded. It says many other dead and wounded are trapped under rubble or unreachable because of the fighting. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths but says around two-thirds of those killed were women and children.
Israel blames the high civilian death toll on Hamas because it fights in dense residential areas. Israel says its forces have killed roughly 9,000 militants, without providing evidence, and that 193 of its own soldiers have been killed since the Gaza ground offensive began.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Pakistan recalled its ambassador to Tehran on Wednesday, a day after Iran conducted airstrikes inside Pakistan that it claimed targeted bases for a militant Sunni separatist group.
Islamabad denounced the attack as a “blatant violation” of its airspace and said it killed two children.
Tuesday’s airstrikes in Pakistan’s restive southwestern Baluchistan province imperiled diplomatic relations between the two neighbors, but both sides appeared wary of provoking the other. Iran and nuclear-armed Pakistan have long regarded each other with suspicion over militant attacks.
The attack raised the threat of violence spreading in a Middle East unsettled by Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Iran also staged airstrikes late Monday in Iraq and Syria over an Islamic State-claimed suicide bombing that killed over 90 people earlier this month. Iraq recalled its ambassador from Iran for consultations.
Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, the spokesperson for Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry, announced that Islamabad was recalling its ambassador to Iran over the strikes.
“Last night’s unprovoked and blatant breach of Pakistan’s sovereignty by Iran is a violation of international law and the purposes and principles of the charter of the United Nations,” she said in a televised address.
Baloch added that Pakistan asked the Iranian ambassador, who was visiting Tehran, not to return.
Iran did not immediately acknowledge Pakistan’s decision.
Iranian state media reports, which were later withdrawn without explanation, said the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard targeted bases in Pakistan belonging to the militant group Jaish al-Adl, or the “Army of Justice.”
Iran’s defense minister also said Wednesday that Iran would respond to any threats against itself, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Without naming any country, Gen. Mohammad Reza Ashtiani said: “We will show reaction to threat against the Islamic Republic of Iran from any region. The reaction will be corresponding, harsh and strong.”
Jaish al-Adl, which seeks an independent Baluchistan for ethnic Baluch areas in Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan, acknowledged the assault in a statement shared online.
Six bomb-carrying drones and rockets struck homes that the militants claim housed children and wives of their fighters. Jaish al-Adl said the attack killed two children and wounded two women and a teenage girl.
Videos shared by the Baluch activist group HalVash, purportedly from the site, showed a burning building and two charred, small corpses.
A Pakistani intelligence report said the two children killed were a 6-year-old girl and an 11-month-old boy. Three women were injured, aged between 28 and 35, it said. The report also said three or four drones were launched from the Iranian side, hitting a mosque and other buildings, including a house.
Iran has fought in border areas against militants, but the air attack on Pakistan is unprecedented.
A senior Pakistani security official, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to reporters, said Iran had shared no information prior to the strike. He said that Pakistan reserved the right to respond at a time and place of its choosing and that any strike would be measured and in line with public expectations.
However, there were signs Pakistan was trying to contain anger over the attack. The country’s typically outspoken and nationalistic media reported on the airstrikes with unusual restraint Wednesday. Pakistan is three weeks away from an election, and politicians are focused on campaigning.
Iranian state media did not address the strikes, instead discussing a joint naval drill held by Pakistan and the Iranian navy in the Persian Gulf on Tuesday. Pakistani officials acknowledged the drill but said it came earlier than Iran’s attack.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian acknowledged Tehran carried out the attack in Pakistan while speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He defended the action while repeatedly being told by the interviewer that Pakistan had condemned the attack.
“Regarding Pakistan, none of the nationals of our neighbor, brother and friend Pakistan were the target of Iran’s drones and missiles,” Amirabdollahian said. “We have discussed them with Pakistan’s high-ranking military, security and political officials. Our response is against Iranian terrorists inside Pakistani soil.”
Pakistani Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani said he received a call later from Amirabdollahian.
Jilani told the Iranian the attack seriously damaged relations and could undermine regional peace and stability, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry in Islamabad. “No country in the region should tread this perilous path,” Jilani said in the call.
Pakistani defense analyst Syed Muhammad Ali said that the government might take some measures in response to the attacks, but that it would weigh any military retaliation carefully. He noted Pakistan’s air defense and missile systems are primarily deployed along its eastern border to respond to potential threats from India.
Jaish al-Adl was founded in 2012, and Iranian officials believe it largely operates in Pakistan. The group has claimed bombings and kidnapped members of Iran’s border police in the past. In December, suspected Jaish al-Adl members killed 11 people and wounded eight others in a nighttime attack on a police station in southeastern Iran. Another recent attack killed a police officer in the area.
In 2019, Jaish al-Adl claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing targeting a bus that killed 27 members of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
Iran has suspected that Sunni-majority Pakistan is hosting insurgents, possibly at the behest of its regional arch-rival Saudi Arabia. However, Iran and Saudi Arabia reached a Chinese-mediated detente last March, easing tensions. Pakistan, meanwhile, has blamed Iran for militant attacks targeting its security forces.
It remained unclear why Iran launched the attack now, particularly as its foreign minister met with Pakistan’s caretaker prime minister, Anwar ul-haq Kakar, the same day at the World Economic Forum.
Kakar had yet to comment publicly on the attacks.
His predecessor, Shehbaz Sharif, said he was shocked at the breach of sovereignty. Writing on X, formerly known as Twitter, Sharif said that “sincere dialogue and meaningful cooperation” between the two countries was needed.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
The real “science deniers” aren’t those skeptical of risks posed by climate change, but rather those who insist that men can get pregnant and give birth. (Photo: Andriano_cz/iStock/Getty Images)
If you say, “men give birth,” we all know your position on Hamas.
Now, why is that? Why, if a person says “men give birth” or says that men who say they are women should be allowed to compete in women’s sports, can we be virtually certain that the person sides with Hamas in its war to eradicate Israel?
Theoretically, the two claims—that men as well as women give birth and Israel is the villain in its war against Hamas—have absolutely no connection.
But they do—for two reasons.
Reason No. 1: When people have a distorted moral value system, that distortion applies to just about every issue. Just as a broken compass will almost always point in the wrong direction, a broken moral compass will do the same.
However, to be more precise, people who say, “men give birth” and who side with Hamas, i.e., progressives and leftists—liberals don’t believe men give birth or side with Hamas—do not merely have a broken moral compass. They have a moral compass that works in the way progressives and leftists have configured it: North always points south and east always points west.
Some examples of how the progressive compass works:
Women who object to men who say they are women competing in women’s sports—even in weightlifting—are haters and bigots (“transphobes”). The men who compete against them are heroes.
Adults who object to schools’ sponsoring drag queen performances for 6-year-olds are haters and bigots (“transphobes”). The teachers who take children to drag queen events are progressive, compassionate, and open-minded.
If a 9-year-old girl says she is a boy, the only therapists she is allowed to see are those who engage in “gender affirmation,” which is, of course, a left-wing Orwellian term. The one thing these therapists do not do is affirm the actual gender of the child.
All-black dorms on college campuses are anti-racist. Objecting to racially segregated dorms is racist.
Those who want to build walls or fences to prevent millions of people from illegally entering the country are xenophobic. Those who oppose building such barriers and declare their cities “sanctuary cities” are humanitarians.
Demanding that citizens show a voter ID before being allowed to vote—the norm in virtually every democracy in the world—constitutes “voter suppression.”
If we have fewer police officers, we will have safer cities.
Marriage is a product of patriarchal misogyny. It wasn’t created to protect and honor women, but to exploit them. Anyway, a woman needs a man as much as a fish needs a bicycle.
Scientists who express skepticism about catastrophic man-made global warming are “science deniers.”
These are some of the morally and factually perverse positions of the Left. Just about every individual who holds these positions also holds the morally perverse position that Israel is the villain and Hamas and its Palestinian supporters are the moral party.
The converse is also true: With the exception of Muslims, those who are anti-Israel also tend to believe that men give birth and the other examples of left-wing moral chaos. Few Muslims—certainly no religious ones—believe that men give birth or that children should be taken to drag queen shows. They just want Israel destroyed.
Reason No. 2: People who say that men give birth also say that Israel is the villain because these positions emanate from the same aim; namely, the destruction of Western civilization, beginning with the destruction of the West’s moral and social norms.
When people say that men give birth and that men can compete in women’s sports, they are seeking to undo the bases of Western civilization—truth, science and the belief that we live in an ordered universe. That is why the Left is so adamant about denying that sex (“gender”) is binary. The fact that there are only two sexes represents order—natural and, worse, divine.
Those on the Left unwittingly acknowledge the connection between their anti-Western positions and their Israel-hatred. They routinely attack Israel for being an “outpost of Western civilization.” That is precisely what Israel is, which tells you a great deal about both of Israel’s enemies—the Left and much of the Muslim world.
Many are concerned that China, like the Pied Piper, is brainwashing our youth pitting them against American values such as pushing antisemitism and endorsing the terrorist group Hamas through the use of Tic Tok a popular platform among the millennials.
‘Borat’ Star Blasts TikTok Executives for Allowing Nazi-Like Anti-Semitism
“Obviously a lot of what Sacha says, there’s truth to that,” Presser said, citing Cohen’s call for action on all social media fronts, but said there was no “magic button” to fix the problem. Messing tried to win a commitment to clamp down on the pro-Palestinian slogan “from the river to the sea,” which has become a shorthand for the elimination of Israel. Presser said TikTok’s 40,000 moderators believe the words are open to interpretation. “Where it is clear exactly what they mean — ‘kill the Jews, eradicate the state of Israel’ — that content is violative and we take it down,” he said.
“Our approach up until Oct. 7, continuing to today, has been that for instances where people use the phrase where it’s not clear, where someone is just using it casually, then that has been considered… READ MORE…
Poll: Majority of Americans 18-24 Believe Israel Should ‘Be Ended and Given to Hamas’
In the aftermath of the October 7th Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel, the disturbing level of antisemitism among young Americans has been on full display. That stark reality is on full display in a new poll conducted by Harvard-Harris poll. The poll reveals that 51% of young Americans between 18 and 24 years old believe Israel should “be ended and given to Hamas.” This is what happens when you spend four years being indoctrinated by radical leftists on college campuses and get your political advice from TikTok. The poll further reveals that only 32% believe in a two-state solution.Just 17% said other Arab states should be asked to… READ MORE…
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
U.S. spy agencies verified Israeli claims that Hamas and another Palestinian terrorist group used Shifa Hospital in Gaza City as a command center and to hold hostages, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.
In late November, the Israel Defense Forces released extensive video evidence of terror tunnels under Shifa Hospital—the Gaza Strip’s largest medical facility—saying it “unequivocally” proves the modus operandi of Hamas, “which systematically operates from hospitals.”
The terrorist group held at least three of the estimated 240 hostages it kidnapped on Oct. 7 at Shifa, the IDF said. Nevertheless, critics continued to claim that the IDF had little evidence Hamas used the hospital as a command post.
“In the weeks since the operation, news organizations have continued to raise questions about Hamas’s presence at the hospital. And health and humanitarian organizations have criticized the Israeli operation. A humanitarian team led by the World Health Organization, which visited Al-Shifa immediately after Israeli forces stormed the hospital, called it a ‘death zone,'” the Times reported.
But a senior U.S. intelligence official said Tuesday that the American government was convinced that Hamas used the hospital complex to direct terrorist forces, store weapons and hold “at least a few hostages.” The official also said U.S. spy agencies had information that Hamas destroyed evidence before the IDF operation at the hospital got underway. A U.S. official expressed confidence in the intelligence assessment as it was based on information gathered independently by both Israel and American agencies.
In November, the IDF recovered the body of Cpl. Noa Marciano, who was kidnapped by Hamas, in a building adjacent to Shifa Hospital. Also found next to the hospital was the corpse of another hostage, Yehudit Weiss.
Israeli forces arrested the hospital’s director, Muhammad Abu Salmiya, on Dec. 23.
“In the hospital, under his management, there was extensive Hamas terrorist activity. Findings of his involvement in terrorist activity will determine whether he will be subject to further ISA [Israel Security Agency, i.e. Shin Bet] questioning,” the IDF said in a statement.Republished with permission from Jewish News Syndicate.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week outlined three prerequisites for peace in the region following months of war with Hamas. Netanyahu, in an opinion piece published by The Wall Street Journal on Monday, outlined the three: the destruction of Hamas, the demilitarization of Gaza, and the deradicalization of Palestinian society.
“First, Hamas, a key Iranian proxy, must be destroyed. The U.S., U.K., France, Germany, and many other countries support Israel’s intention to demolish the terror group,” Netanyahu wrote.
“Second, Gaza must be demilitarized. Israel must ensure that the territory is never again used as a base to attack it,” he added.
According to Netanyahu, this will involve creating “a temporary security zone” on Gaza’s perimeter and a border inspection system to prevent weapons smuggling. He also claimed that expecting the Palestinian Authority to demilitarize Gaza “is a pipe dream.”
“Third, Gaza will have to be deradicalized,” the prime minster continued. “Schools must teach children to cherish life rather than death, and imams must cease to preach for the murder of Jews. Palestinian civil society needs to be transformed so that its people support fighting terrorism rather than funding it.”
Netanyahu wrote that once these three goals are achieved, “Gaza can be rebuilt and the prospects of a broader peace in the Middle East will become a reality.”
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who has been on travel excursions to Israel since 1973, said in a new Newsmax interview that his recent tour of Kibbutz Kfar Aza, a location hit by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, really opened his eyes and he’s “witnessed a lot of things, but nothing like this.”
“I wanted to be here to say I stand with Israel,” Huckabee told Newsmax’s Daniel Cohen at the kibbutz in an interview airing on Newsmax Thursday. “I stand with the Jewish people. What happened to them should never again happen to any human beings on the face of the Earth.”
Huckabee and conservative author Joel Rosenberg together led an American evangelical delegation to the kibbutz, with the tour hosted by a Knesset member, Danny Danon, to send a “powerful message of solidarity with Israel,” Cohen reported.
“We walked there for about an hour,” said Cohen. “The bloodstains have all been scrubbed, but nothing can erase the crimes the terrorists committed there on Oct. 7.”
In all, Hamas terrorists murdered 63 people at Kibbutz Kfar Aza, and took 18 as hostages.
“It was atrocious, and they knew they were targeting children, babies, women, unarmed men, and elderly [people], Holocaust survivors,” said Huckabee. “It just reeks of the worst kind of human atrocity. I want everyone in America and across the world to say we stand with Israel.”
Cohen also reported on Iris Haim, the mother of Yotam Haim, one of three hostages who were mistakenly killed by Israel Defense Forces soldiers last week.
She sent a voice message to the soldiers who shot her son, telling them that she loves them and that she blames “only Hamas” for what happened to her son, Cohen said.
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Hamas turned the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia in the Gaza Strip into a military base, its director Ahmad Kahlot admitted during an investigation conducted by Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, Shin Bet.
The hospital director’s testimony was revealed in a video of the interrogation published by Shin Bet and Israel Defense Forces on Tuesday evening.
Kahlot was among dozens of armed suspects who surrendered and were arrested at the hospital in the northern Gaza Strip on Dec. 12, according to the IDF. Footage of the mass arrest was published two days later.
Kahlot was recruited into Hamas as a high-ranking officer and several of the hospital’s staff served as military operatives of the Hamas organization under him, he said.
According to Kahlot, about 16 of the hospital’s employees served in a double role as Hamas terrorists, including doctors, nurses, paramedics, and clerks.
Hamas terrorists turned the hospital into a military facility, hiding its operatives there, using ambulances for transport and even holding a kidnapped Israeli soldier there.
“They hide in hospitals because they believe that a hospital is a safe place. They will not be harmed if they are inside a hospital,” he stated.
“Hamas has offices inside the hospitals,” Kahlot continued during the interrogation. “There are places for senior officials – they also brought a kidnapped soldier there. There is a designated place for investigations, internal security, and special security. They all have private phone lines inside the hospital.”
Kahlot explained that Hamas has its own private ambulances, with slightly different colors and no license plates. “It was used to bring the kidnapped soldier and to transfer bodies. It comes and goes without transporting the wounded.”
“Once I begged them to take a wounded man to an Indonesian hospital, for healing, for treatment, they refused. Their mission is more important,” the hospital director told Israeli authorities.
“The leaders of Hamas are cowards. They left us on the ground while they’re holing up in hiding places. They destroyed us.”
More than 70 terrorists were arrested during an operation on the grounds of the Kamal Adwan Hospital last week. Several clashes broke out, during which IDF soldiers eliminated more terrorists.
The detainees were taken for interrogation by Israel’s Military Intelligence Unit 504 and Shin Bet coordinators.
In the footage published by the IDF, the terrorists can be seen leaving the hospital premises holding weapons above their heads as a sign of surrender.
A recently released Hamas hostage’s revelation of sexual violence against her fellow captives appears to refute anti-Israel progressives who tend to downplay or dismiss terrorists’ atrocities. Chen Goldstein-Almog, 48, was held hostage by Hamas with three of her children for 51 days following the Palestinian terrorist group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israelis. Her husband and eldest daughter were murdered by Palestinian terrorists during the attack.
Chen Goldstein-Almog, 48, was held hostage with three of her children by Hamas for 51 days following the Palestinian terrorist group’s Oct. 7 attack on innocent Israelis. (Israel Defense Forces via AP)
Goldstein-Almog and her children were released by the terror group, and the wife and mother gave an interview with the Israeli press on Dec. 11 about her time as a hostage. During her interview, Goldstein-Almog revealed she heard firsthand accounts of sexual violence from other female hostages by their Hamas captors.
“I heard the testimony directly from girls and heard things second hand,” Goldstein-Almog said. “Some of the sexual violence happened well into our time in Gaza, not in the first week.”
“But the way their bodies were desecrated, they don’t know how they will deal with that. It happened weeks into their time in Gaza,” she said.
“If they were released earlier, they would’ve been saved from experiencing sexual violence,” Goldstein-Almog added.
Goldstein-Almog said they “heard three stories firsthand of women saying they were sexually abused and we heard an additional story.” She added that “presumably, there are more instances” of sexual violence by Hamas.
Briahna Joy Gray, a former spokesperson for Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign, tweeted, “‘Believe all women’ was always an absurd overreach: woman should be heard, claims should be investigated, but evidence is required.” (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
The former hostage also said she “was threatened once when they thought I was wandering around and looking free” in the first apartment they were taken to and that “there was a threat that” she would “be handcuffed, but it didn’t happen.”
“I said I have kids and nothing happened to me,” Goldstein-Almog said. “It was the only time I felt under threat [of sexual violence].”
A spokesperson for the Biden administration State Department noted earlier this month that one of the reasons Hamas does not want to release women hostages is because “they don’t want those women to be able to talk about what happened to them.”
Many American progressives have been largely silent on Hamas’ sexual violence against Israelis, while some have downplayed or dismissed the reports of sexual assault.
Briahna Joy Gray, a former national press secretary for Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign, tweeted earlier this month, “‘Believe all women’ was always an absurd overreach: woman should be heard, claims should be investigated, but evidence is required.”
“The same is true of the allegations out of Israel,” Gray wrote in a Dec. 4 tweet. “But also, this isn’t a ‘believe women’ scenario bc no female victims have offered testimony.”
“Believe all women” was always an absurd overreach: woman should be heard, claims should be investigated, but evidence is required. The same is true of the allegations out of Israel.
But also, this isn’t a “believe women” scenario bc no female victims have offered testimony. https://t.co/a3Ku6gzY8L
“Zionists are asking that we believe the uncorroborated eyewitness account of *men* who describe alleged rape victims in odd, fetishistic terms,” Gray continued in a subsequent tweet.
“Shame on Israel for not seriously investigating claims of rape and collecting rape kits,” she added.
Zionists are asking that we believe the uncorroborated eyewitness account of *men* who describe alleged rape victims in odd, fetishistic terms.
Shame on Israel for not seriously investigating claims of rape and collecting rape kits. pic.twitter.com/zbHfduQnev
Progressive Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., was torched after she clashed with CNN’s Dana Bash over the lack of widespread condemnation of Hamas’ use of sexual violence against Israeli women during the Oct. 7 attacks. The Washington state Democrat suggested that wasn’t true and claimed she had already condemned Hamas’ treatment of women, before quickly turning the conversation back to Israel.
“But I think we have to remember Israel is a democracy. That is why they’re a strong ally of ours. And if they do not comply with international humanitarian law, they are bringing themselves to a place that makes it much more difficult strategically for them to be able to build allies, to keep public opinion with them, and frankly, morally, we cannot say that one war crime deserves another. That is not what international humanitarian law says,” Jayapal said.
“With respect, I was just asking about the women, and you turned it back to Israel. I’m asking you about Hamas,” Bash said.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal was torched after she clashed with CNN’s Dana Bash over the lack of widespread condemnation of Hamas’ use of sexual violence against Israeli women during the Oct. 7 attacks. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The lawmaker said she had already answered the question and added, “We have to be balanced about bringing in the outrages against Palestinians. Fifteen thousand Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes, three-quarters of whom are women and children.”
“And it’s horrible,” Bash said. “But you don’t see Israeli soldiers raping Palestinian women.”
“I don’t want this to be the hierarchies of oppressions,” Jayapal said.
Jayapal has since issued a statement“unequivocally” condemning “Hamas’ use of rape and sexual violence as an act of war.”
“This is horrific and across the world, we must stand with our sisters, families, and survivors of rape and sexual assault everywhere to condemn this violence and hold perpetrators accountable,” Jayapal said.
Neither Jayapal nor Gray immediately responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Hanna Panreck contributed reporting.
Houston Keene is a politics writer for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to Houston.Keene@Fox.com and on Twitter: @HoustonKeene
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The Palestinians are expecting a high vote Tuesday for a U.N. General Assembly resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza to demonstrate widespread global support for ending the Israel-Hamas war, now in its third month. After the United States vetoed a resolution in the Security Council on Friday demanding a humanitarian cease-fire, Arab and Islamic nations called for an emergency session of the 193-member General Assembly to vote on a resolution making the same demand.
Unlike Security Council resolutions, General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding. But the assembly’s messages “are also very important” and reflect world opinion, U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said Monday.
The General Assembly vote is expected to reflect the growing isolation of the United States as it refuses to join demands for a cease-fire. More than the United Nations or any other international organization, the United States is seen as the only entity capable of persuading Israel to accept a cease-fire as its closest ally and biggest supplier of weaponry.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, told U.N. reporters Tuesday that Arab and Islamic ambassadors have been mobilizing support for the resolution and expect it will get a significantly higher number of votes than their Oct. 27 resolution, which called for a “humanitarian truce” leading to a cessation of hostilities. That resolution was the first U.N. reaction to the Gaza war, and the vote was 120-14 with 45 abstentions.
“I think it will send a message to Washington and to others,” Mansour said, adding that a demand from the United Nations, whether it’s the Security Council or the General Assembly, should be looked at as binding. “And Israel has to abide by it, and those who are shielding and protecting Israel until now should also look at it this way, and therefore act accordingly,” he said. The resolution to be voted on expresses “grave concern over the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and the suffering of the Palestinian civilian population,” and it says Palestinians and Israelis must be protected in accordance with international humanitarian law.
It also demands that all parties comply with international humanitarian law, “notably with regard to the protection of civilians,” and calls for “the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, as well as ensuring humanitarian access.”
Mansour said the 22-member Arab Group and 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation will oppose any amendments to the resolution. The resolution makes no mention of Hamas, whose militants killed about 1,200 people and abducted about 240 in the surprise attack inside Israel on Oct. 7 that set off the war.
One amendment proposed by the United States would add a paragraph stating that the assembly “unequivocally rejects and condemns the heinous terrorist attacks by Hamas.”
A second amendment proposed by Austria would add that the hostages are “held by Hamas and other groups” and should be released “immediately.”
The war has brought unprecedented death and destruction, with much of northern Gaza obliterated, more than 18,000 Palestinians killed according to the Hamas-run health ministry, 70% of them reportedly children and women, and over 80% of the population of 2.3 million pushed from their homes.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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